billion belgian francs.
With this project they will increase the safety of the city of Ostend against storms and make the port economical and touristic better.They will build a new beach between the 'Casino Kursaal' and the
'Capucijnenstraat'. The beach will be strong enough to survive a storm of 1000 years. The old sea-dike of Ostend is now 5 metres to low to protect the inner city against heavy storms. An other problem is the rising of
the sea-level with a few centimetres every 10 years. In the past they would have considered to build a heigher sea-dike but nowadays they search for more natural solutions like a beach.
The new beach will look
exactely like all the other beaches along the Flemish Coast. The necessary amount of sand will be dredged in the port channel and will be spouted on the beach.
But with the new sandbeach there is a danger that the
port of Ostend will silting up. Therefore it is necessary to build a protection dam near the 'Capucijnenstraat'. Because a new entrance for the Ostend port was planned, it was decided to integrate both projects.
There are plans to build 2 new breakwaters that will form the new entrance of the port. The new Westdam will be constructed near the 'Capucijnenstraat'. The old 'Westerstakestel' will be maintained, but the
'Oosterstaketsel' (that's the one in concrete) will be removed. They will build the new eastern breakwater (Eastdam) in front of the 'H. Baelskaai'. The two new breakwaters will go 400 meters away from the coastline and
will be accesable for tourists and ferrylovers !!!
Once the work is completed then larger vessels will be able to enter the port. The start of the project is sheduled for may 2001 and the works will takes almost 3
years.
