Archive for January, 2010

We are sure that you have been avidly following our beach restoration coverage on this website and on www.royalresortsnews.com and as the Cancún project wraps up at the end of this month, we wanted to share some additional photos with you.
The beaches at The Royal Sands, The Royal Mayan, The Royal Caribbean and The Royal Islander have been completely restored and palapas and sun loungers have been reinstalled, ready and waiting for your next trip.
The global interest in this project has been immense and the Mexican Tourist Board has been proudly showing off Cancún’s pearly white beaches at the FITUR Travel Show in Madrid, Spain (January 18 - 22).

Cancún Beach Restoration Fast Facts

* 12 kilometers of beach restored from Punta Cancún to Punta Nizuc
* 4.5 kilometers of beach in Playa del Carmen
* Approximately 6.3 million cubic meters of sand were dredged from two sand banks - La Ollita near Isla Mujeres and Punta Norte off the coast of Cozumel - and pumped on to the Cancún shoreline.
* The Cancún portion of the project cost $650 million Mexican pesos
* Restoration was carried out by Mexicana de Dragados S.A. de C.V., an affiliate of Belgian company Jan de Nul, and coordinated by the Mexican Electricity Board (CFE).
* Two dredgers worked round the clock to restore Cancún’s beaches.
* Work advanced at a pace of 100 meters a day.
* A concrete barrier was erected between Punta Cancún and the Golondrinas Islet. Over 300 meters long and comprised of more than 13,830 concrete blocks weighing approximately 16,245 tons, the sea wall will help to reduce coastal erosion and sand loss.
* A 10-year monitoring and maintenance project is also planned.
* Sand pumping began in Cancún on November 1 and by December 16, beach project engineers had already reached The Royal Sands.
* Work started at The Royal Mayan on January 6 and was completed at The Royal Islander on January 14. Once the 12-meter-long pipes and heavy equipment were moved further south, resort staff reopened all the beach entrances.
* With only 400 meters of shoreline to restore, the Cancún project will be finished by the end of January and work is well underway in Playa del Carmen.
* Mexican President Felipe Calderón is expected to visit the area in February to inspect the beaches.

January 14, Beach restoration has now been completed at The Royal Islander and project engineers are moving heavy equipment further south along the shoreline, although the pipeline in front of The Royal Mayan and The Royal Caribbean has still to be dismantled.

There is access to the beach from The Royal Mayan, The Royal Caribbean and The Royal Islander. The installation of beach palapas has finished at The Royal Mayan and will continue at The Royal Caribbean on Friday. Shade umbrellas will be available at The Royal Islander until all machinery has moved out of the area.

Overall, beach restoration is 91% complete with work now underway in the Playa Delfines area. Edgar Ordoñez Durán, the Project Coordinator indicated that it will take another 10 days to restore the remaining stretch of shore. He also mentioned that the concrete wall erected between Punta Cancún and the Golondrinas Islet to prevent sand being washed further north along the coast will be finished by the end of the month.

The Beach Project crew has been working round the clock and we are pleased to report that they have now advanced to The Royal Caribbean. You can see the progress as you look at the most recent photos taken by the Royal Channel on January 7.
As work is underway at The Royal Caribbean and will continue at The Royal Islander, the beaches in front of the three resorts will remain closed for safety reasons until the authorities give the signal to reopen them. The floating tube through which sand is pumped from the dredger to the metal pipeline on the beach is currently located in front of The Royal Caribbean and is expected to remain there for several days, and diggers and other heavy vehicles continue to operate in the area. A temporary access to the beach has now been opened in front of Building M at The Royal Mayan. Additional updates will be published as we receive more information from the beach project coordinator.
According to the original calendar issued by the Mexican authorities in December 2009, the pipes and beach restoration vehicles were scheduled for removal at the three resorts on January 15 (estimated date, give or take one or two days).
The beaches to the north of The Royal Mayan are open and shuttle service to The Royal Sands is also available. Overall, the Cancún Beach Restoration project is now 77% complete.
Stay posted for a video and additional photos over the coming days.

January 6 and right on schedule, beach restoration is underway at The Royal Mayan. Project engineers ordered the closure of the beach in front of The Royal Mayan, The Royal Caribbean and The Royal Islander yesterday so that pipes and heavy machinery could be moved into place. We have just been informed that sand is now being pumped on to the beach at The Royal Mayan.
In other Royal Resorts beach news, the palapas at The Royal Sands have now been reinstalled.
Finally, representatives of the Beach Restoration Trust, the Secretary of Tourism for Mexico Rodolfo Elizondo, the Quintana Roo State Governor Felix Gonzalez Canto and the Mayor of Cancun Gregorio Sánchez met yesterday to discuss project progress, funding and future monitoring/maintenance. After some confusion over the New Year regarding a payment due from Cancún City Council, they announced that an agreement had been reached and that beach restoration will continue as planned. Over 60 percent of the Cancún shoreline has already been restored and the project is slated for completion in February.
We will be posting further websites as work progresses at the three Royal Resorts.