Friday 29 March 2024 – 06:30
“Grimaldi’s acquisition of the Darsena Toscana Terminal in Livorno must be considered an opportunity and not a danger for the maintenance of container traffic in the Livorno port.”
It is a clear message that the president of the Port System Authority of the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea, Luciano Guerrieri, delivered to the representatives of the Partnership Organisation, the institutional body designated to develop the necessary dialogue with the subjects directly involved in port activities .
“It will be our responsibility to communicate with TDT and the Grimaldi group so that the terminal offer aimed at the container traffic market not only remains unchanged but is oriented towards its development” stated Guerrieei underlining that “if necessary the AdSP will use all the prerogatives and powers available to ensure this.”
Given that any change in the intended use of the spaces assigned to TDT must be agreed with the Port Authority, “the AdSP will undertake to ensure that the multipurpose nature of the port is defended. Rolling stock is not prohibited in the Darsena Toscana Terminal but the basic concept is that one type of traffic, whatever it may be, cannot be developed to the detriment of others” specified Guerrieri.
“There is no fundamental ambiguity on our part on this issue. Indeed, it is our intention to organize a meeting with the TDT top management as soon as possible. We will summon the highest representative of the board of directors to explain to us what his orientations are; we will actually ask him a formal commitment to guarantee the port further development of containerized traffic and to invest in port infrastructure. For us, these are decisive elements and will be subject to evaluation when the new Industrial Plan is presented to us.”
Net of the issues on concession structures, the priorities of the AdSP remain those already defined in the budget forecast and in the three-year plan of the works and all respond to the need to allow the port to arrive alive at the Darsena Europa appointment, a work today considered highly more necessary as it is able to offer the port new areas and spaces on which to count for the development not only of containers but also of those types of traffic which today are limited in the current dimensioning and for which new areas could be freed up thanks to a reorganization of the current spaces.
For Guerrieri it is all part of an overall plan to improve the efficiency of the port’s accommodation capacity. “The attractiveness of Livorno is already confirmed today by the growing interest of large international players but we need more spaces, more docks. And this is the meaning of the Darsena Europa. The infrastructure allows us to be able to count on almost a million m2 intended for the reorganization and development of the container offer and another million m2 for Ro/Ro, Ro/Ro pax”.
The president of the port authority reiterated that “today we all have an interest in providing the market with the conditions so that it can re-express itself on the use of a work which we believe can be made available to operators also in operational phases, through for example the construction of a stretch of quay. If we have to prepare for a future in which to grow we must ensure that the current container market does not deteriorate but gains further ground”.
If Darsena Europa represents the future, the present must guarantee the port the possibility of remaining competitive. At the request of those present, it was the general secretary, Matteo Paroli, who provided an update on the progress of some of the most awaited interventions, starting with those to widen the access canal. As is known, the intervention is necessary to create the quayside of one of the banks of the waterway at the commercial port, currently no more than 60 meters wide in the narrowest section, 90 meters in the widest section.
Once the retraction of the quay is completed, the canal will have a maximum width of 125 metres. The new quay will also allow the implementation of subsequent dredging interventions, which will guarantee the deepening to 13 meters below the banks and 16 meters at the center of the navigable ditch.
Both interventions will be carried out only following the definitive burial by Eni of the oil pipelines that currently run along the two banks of the canal, reducing its navigable section. “The start of work under Eni’s responsibility is now imminent” Paroli communicated, underlining that the Port Authority is waiting to have the updated list of nautical vehicles involved in the construction site convoy. “As soon as the certificates of navigability and equipment of the vehicles have been received, the Captaincy will be able to issue the order prohibiting transit of the Canal. It will take a few more weeks”.
The blocking windows of the access channel will normally run from 11.00 pm to 7.00 am but will be flexible and can be varied according to the needs of the construction site and the port. Regarding timing, the construction site will be handed over to ENI by the first days of May. And it is expected that the intervention will be completed between October and November.
In the meantime, the AdSP is moving forward with the maxi contract to widen the canal: “At the end of March, the technical offices concluded the technical checks on the Temporary Business Grouping that won the tender. In the next few days, further additions will be requested from the RTI but it is likely that the works will be delivered in May. The first six months will be dedicated to the executive planning of the work. The actual works should begin in November”.
At the same time as the widening of the access channel, Paroli informed the members of the Partnership Body that the AdSP is studying the hypothesis of cutting the Tripoli inlet (Darsena n.1) with the aim of widening the evolution basin entrance to the commercial port. “Next week, together with the technical manager Enrico Pribaz, we will meet the design studio responsible for developing a preliminary analysis on the feasibility hypotheses of the work. There are many cutting hypotheses and all have variable costs and benefits in the measure of the hypothesized cut” .
Likewise, the possibility of cutting the Vegliaia dam has been hypothesized: “The work is not necessary at the moment but we will have to take it into consideration if together with the cutting of the Tripoli it would allow us to facilitate a less critical entry of ships. In recent weeks we have a hydrodynamic study assignment was entrusted to a company in reference to the various cutting hypotheses. The objective is to understand whether there could be repercussions linked to the wave motion entering the port basin”.
