Installation of the ecological structures is progressing at a good pace at the Port of Vigo. The Living Ports project plan includes two large-scale demonstration sites: a 310m² ECOncrete seawall panels with an underwater monitoring and observatory deck (The Nautilus) developed by Cardama; and 100 ECOncrete ecologically designed armor units (Coastalocks) to provide coastal stabilization as well as habitat creation and ecological uplift.
Now 1 year in the project, the 100 Coastalocks armor units are installed in the Bouzas area and the 310m² of seawall panels have been produced, with half of them already installed in Portocultura. The Nautilus is now finalized and will soon be launched and tugged from Cardama Shipyard to Portocultura in order to be moored in front of the ECOncrete seawall, ready for the official opening in March 2023. During the three-year project (2021-2024) the biological and structural monitoring is led by Danish Technical University (DTU) in coordination with the Port of Vigo and ECOncrete. An Italian expert team will also conduct a first of a kind noise pollution reduction monitoring in the context of enhanced marine growth on ECOncrete’s units.