Retrospective of the works at Mont St Michel

The main dates of the desensitization works

The Mont Saint Michel has become an island again after the gigantic works of restoration started in 1995.

At each high tide, the Mount is surrounded by water. Since the land reclamation and the

Construction of the road-break in 1879, the Mont became bogged down and lost its ability to be am island  due to sediment accumulation. A project of restoration was  launched on April 1, 1995 (sic). It will take 10 years of study before the works start after having been declared of public utility in 2003.

In 2006, construction of the new Couesnon dam begins. The structure is 138 meters long, for 15 meters wide, will replace that completed in 1969. The latter is also destroyed in 2008. The new dam has 8 valves reversible and each release of water represents from 70000 to 1.2 million cubic meters at a maximum flow of 100 meters /cube per second. In 2010, the giant car parks and the tourist information center are launched.

It was not until 2011 that the new dike-road (1 km long) and the new bridge-bridge with a length of 760 meters begin to be built. Meanwhile, the Couesnon is reprofiled and 8kms of channels are made in the Cove of Moidrey.

From April 28, 2012, the car parks located at the foot of the Mont are closed to the public and the shuttles (the smugglers) begin their round trips.

On July 22, 2014, the bridge is officially inaugurated before the destruction of the old dyke-road in early 2015.

Finally, on October 16th, 2015, an inaugural show was given to celebrate the end of the works

The Mont Saint Michel is once again an island with each high tide, especially because of the water releases on the dam of Couesnon that send the sediments back to the sea. Twice a day, after each high-sea, the dam's gates are open to drive sediment to the sea.

On July 2, 2016, the Mont will see the start of the Tour de France cyclist whose riders will take the bridge before going to Utah-Beach.