Lebanese And French Officials FLoat A Plan To Rebuild Beirut Port

Diana E.

Lebanese and French officials put forward a plan for reconstruction and reorganization of the port after three and a half years of one of the world’s biggest non-nuclear explosions.

The French government funded the development of the plan by two French engineering firms, Artelia and Egis. It will focus on rebuilding quays damaged in the explosion, reorganizing the port’s layout to streamline traffic, and shifting the facility to solar power.

Lebanon will need to come up with an estimated $60–$80 million to complete the reconstruction. It plans on using the port’s revenues, which have been on the rise after a slump amid the COVID-19 pandemic and Lebanon’s descent into an unprecedented economic crisis, to reach $150 million in 2023.

 

However, the plan presented did not address the fate of the port’s massive grain silos, which had absorbed much of the shock of the explosion, effectively shielding the western part of Beirut from the blast.

The Lebanese government at one point planned to demolish the damaged silos but decided against it after families of the blast’s victims and survivors protested, demanding their preservation as a memorial and in case they might contain evidence useful for the judicial probe.

A large portion of the silos collapsed in 2022, while the remaining section has been left in place.

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