Calais plans to create the first direct gateway for goods distribution between the UK and continental Europe with Calais Premier – the biggest logistics project in northern France.
Work on the 160 ha site is due to start next year. The site is the Turquerie industrial zone which stretches along the Calais-Dunkirk railway line between Calais port and the Channel Tunnel.
The first phase of the project, a surface area of 50 hectares, will commence in 2012 and is due for completion by 2013-2014. This will be dedicated to logistics activities and transport services, and is expected to have 220,000 sqm of logistics warehouses.
Cap Calaisis is planning to invest £1.8m to create a railway junction at the site as well as modernising the whole Calais-Dunkirk railway line. In addition, the Calais 2015 Port Project, worth £350m, will extend the port to twice its size. The aim is to make Calais Europe’s central communications point.
“With this project, Calais will assert its strategic position as a European crossroads,” said mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart.
