Riddle: How do you stay in Europe after a 14-hour flight? Answer: go to Reunion. A remote island in the Indian Ocean, La Reunion is a French overseas territory located between Madagascar and Mauritius. The island has a total area of ​​2,512 km² and a population of 866,506. About a quarter of this population lives in the ethnically diverse capital, Saint-Denis. The island is home to one of the most active volcanoes in the world, the Piton de la Fournaise, creating a unique landscape that is now a World Heritage Site. The combination of extreme weather, dense population, and varied landscape is an extremely challenging environment for infrastructure. The original coastal road that connected the island’s two main urban centers, Saint-Denis and La Possession, was located between the sea and the cliff face, making it susceptible to landslides, rain floods, and frequent tidal surges. All this contributed to the road often being impassable and unusable. This lasted for about 64 days a year, having a direct impact on trade, which relies 60 percent on freight transport along the Littoral route, which is part of the road. With this in mind, the Réunion authorities intend to create a faster and safer coastal road to facilitate travel, providing infrastructure to reduce traffic congestion and improve reliability, comfort and safety for users. The estimated cost is €2 billion. The new coastal road is 12.5 km long and is located between 80 and 300 meters from the coast to avoid natural disasters. The road consists of three main sections, including a 5.4 km coastal viaduct and two causeways (an interchange and a causeway linking La Grande Chaloupe and La Possession). At 5.4 km, it is the longest viaduct of its kind in France and at around 30 m wide, the deck will have a flexible dual configuration with three traffic lanes, which can accommodate a future lane dedicated to public transport. Within a limited period of time, 19 million tons of earth had to be delivered to build the embankments. This had to be done on the island itself. This was one of the biggest challenges, since the island is small and these materials are not easy to find. The project also involves the world's largest offshore platform crane. This crane was designed and manufactured by Enerpak; it is installed on an offshore platform. Given the complexity of the project and its location, it was decided to manufacture the reinforced concrete elements of the structure on land in order to avoid the influence of the tides and reduce the time of work on the water. Two production sites were created in the port area for the manufacture of prefabricated piers and segments. New production, large-scale work, and major investments entailed the creation of additional jobs (a total of 19 thousand people are involved in the project), which had a positive impact on the island's economy. The island has a unique environment in which marine mammals and rare bird species must be protected, and then there is the Indian Ocean with all its beautiful coral reefs.” In other words, extreme caution is required. “Placing the blocks that protect the embankment from the sea is a very complex task. The builders had to know where to place them. Since the water of the Indian Ocean is not always transparent, it was necessary to find the right location underwater. Drones were used to study the river bed, the data from which was processed to obtain a 3D point cloud. An accurate digital model of the terrain, built in Civil 3D, helped to more accurately design the foundations of the supports, organize water drainage and optimize earthworks. In addition, photography was carried out during the construction process to monitor the progress of work and track changes in the state of the river bed due to rain. During the construction of the sea highway, 1,386 segments, each weighing 2.4 thousand tons, as well as 48 piers, were manufactured at the new production sites. All parts of the structure are transported to their places by barges and installed using a 278 m long launch beam and 16 giant tower cranes with lifting capacities ranging from 35 to 220 tonnes. Given its open maritime location, the infrastructure is exposed to particularly harsh weather and sea conditions, such as cyclones and tides, as well as sensitive and variable geotechnical conditions. Therefore, the assembly and protection of the road was a must. The viaduct is designed to last 100 years and withstand exceptional impacts, including collisions with sea vessels. Importantly, the lower part of the deck is located at a height of 13 to 22 metres above sea level – beyond the reach of the highest waves. The 3.6 km long road between La Grande Chalupe and La Vladicion will be a double carriageway with three traffic lanes.