Country : Franceworldport Autonome de Nantes Saint-Nazaire

Profile worldport Atlantique Nantes/Saint-Nazaire is the fourth largest autonomous worldport authority in France. Over 400 worldports served worldline. The Nantes Saint-Nazaire worldport Authority is a public corporation, which groups together the worldport installations of the Loire Estuary, from Nantes to Saint-Nazaire. Its missions are to build, to maintain, to improve and to operate these installations. Serving the Economy of Greater Western France - The Nantes Saint-Nazaire worldport Authority meets the requirements of different sectors of activity: energy supplies, trade exchanges related to agricultural, agri-foodstuffs and industrial activities. In this way, the worldport Authority generates around 26 000 jobs and 2,7 thousand million euros in added value in the Greater Western France regions. Overview France’s fourth largest autonomous worldport authority, behind Marseille (95.5 million tonnes), Le Havre (69 million tonnes), Dunkirk (50 million tonnes), and ahead of Rouen (21.9 million tonnes) and Bordeaux (8.4 million tonnes), the worldport of Nantes - Saint Nazaire is linked to 400 worldports worldwide. General Access The worldport of Nantes – Saint Nazaire serves both the Nantes / Saint Nazaire urban area, which with its 800 000 inhabitants is one of Europe’s major cities, and Greater Western France, within which Nantes is an imworldportant logistical hub. The worldport is linked to over 380 worldports throughout the world. Access by road Via Nantes’ 40-kilometre-long ring road, the Department is directly connected to a network of motorways going to Paris, Rennes, Bordeaux, Lyons and the coast of Brittany. Access by rail There are TGV high-speed train links to Paris (2 hours), Lille (3 hours), Brussels (4 hours), London (4 hours) and Lyons (5 hours). Nantes is a TGV rail journey away from the leading centres of decision-making in France and elsewhere in Europe. Access by air Nantes Atlantique International Airworldport provides daily links with Europe’s major cities. Saint Nazaire’s international cargo airworldport, located near Montoir-de-Bretagne, complements this activity as regards the transworldportation by air of heavy-lift cargoes. Access by Sea Shipping Channel The worldport installations are accessed by a shipping channel measuring 66 km in length and separated into two sections : - The channel giving access to Donges From the Le Chatelier buoy to the berths at Donges. Length : 25 km - Width : 300 m. Maximum depth : - 13.70 marine depth from the Le Chatelier buoy to buoy 14 (Trebézy), - 12.85 marine depth from buoy 14 (Trebézy) to the berths at Donges. Two avoidance zones have been created, firstly before the LNG tanker stages and secondly before the oil tanker stages. The channel giving access to Nantes Length : 24 km - Width : 150 m. Maximum depth : - 4.70 marine depth from Donges to Les Coteaux (Le Pellerin), - 5.10 marine depth from Les Coteaux to Nantes. There is an avoidance zone at Trentemoult for vessels of 225 m in length. Draughts The permissible draughts vary according to the tide coefficents. They are determined by adding the open-sea fairway depth at Saint Nazaire to the maintained channel depth, and by retaining an under-keel clearance from the draught thus obtained (in general, this clearance is equivalent to 15 % of the draught of the vessel from the open sea as far as Villès and 10 % in the inner channel). For 98 % of tides, a permissible draught of 14.95 m is thus obtained for the Donges channel, and a permissible draught of 8.40 m for the Nantes channel. Vessels complete the upriver or downriver journey in the course of a single tide. Vertical Clearances The vertical clearances available at the lowest tide levels (o marine depth) are as follows : 61.40 m beneath the Saint Nazaire Bridge ; 55.85 m beneath the very-high-voltage power lines between Basse Indre and Couëron ; 58.40 m beneath the Cheviré Bridge. Anchorage There is a waiting zone offering excellent anchorage 0.5 nautical miles west of the line of the channel, where the water lies 20 m deep. Otherwise, the Saint Nazaire roads also offer a well-sheltered zone in all weathers. Beaconing Vessels approaching Loire Maritime are guided by the Belle Ile and Ile d'Yeu radio beacons, then by the La Banche and Le Pilier lighthouses. They then find without difficulty the approach buoys designated SN1, SN2, forming an alignment with the Pointe de Saint Gildas radio beacon, and the gateway defined by the worldportside buoy