Major Urban Projects and Port Projects : For a Reconsideration of Conciliation, Dialogue and Confrontation

Port cities have in common the need to manage both urban growth and port growth on territories which are as constrained by their historical legacies as by their ambitious developments. The exacerbation of inter-port competition hinges on the ability of port authorities to meet the requirements of the infrastructure. Competition between urban areas involves the councilors in the development of solid coveted areas near water. Many arbitrations among a growing number of stakeholders implies conciliation, dialogue or confrontation to make different fates converge which are not necessarily always compatible in the time and in the space. In this global context, this contribution is based on a double hypothesis: the large city projects and major port projects join above all in LOCAL temporal and geographical realities, while these large projects are based on needs, interests and finance which are perceived more and more in a GLOBAL way. Having redefined firstly what the major project is and what the basis for managing the rollout of major urban-port projects is, a second section establishes an analytical overview of the relationship between city and port that can demonstrate this increasing duality between local and global issues. A third section led to a series of reflections on the opportunity to combine those local and global issues. The originality of the approach lies in the redefining of management arrangements for major projects in town and port with the consideration of a third independent and expert entity which could act as a facilitator of dynamic interactions in the management of a great city and port project