Frost. From a very young age I was lucky enough to visit one of the most important seaside cities in the world, Genoa, I grew up seeing ports, container ships, airports, highways, large historic buildings, my studies have certainly refined everything related to the world of real estate, maritime and infrastructure, my friendships in the Ligurian nautical construction sector also contributed.
Infrastructure makes a territory great. Through ideas, resources and political vision we can progress, Gela has a great opportunity, that of making the city the gateway to the Mediterranean for Europe.
We have written it several times and we reiterate it daily with various interventions in the newspapers, without infrastructure there can be no future. For millennia Gela has played a role in the Mediterranean, unfortunately in the last fifty years Gela politics has never paid attention to the sea resource.
Gela, work after work, needs three ports, one commercial, one for fishermen, and the other for pleasure.
We know that our exceptional vision is a starting point for what the development of the Gulf city can be and that today we are at year 0.
“Project Gelone”. Coastal makeover project idea for the Free Consortium of Caltanissetta in the Gulf of Gela.
Commercial port. The Gulf of Gela in the center of the Mediterranean between the SUEZ Canal and the Strait of GIBRALTAR and positioned twenty-five miles away where 35% of world trade passes daily, billions of dollars of products pass every hour before our eyes through containers, today we have sight but we do not have vision. This enormous wealth merged with Special Economic Zones (SEZs) can attract thousands of national and international companies to finally re-enter the new globalized world economy. To achieve this we need to build an island port 7.5 km from the coast to reach a draft (depth) of 20/30 meters perfect for all container ships, the area identified as C.da Bulala.
Fishermen’s Port. The refuge port can never be changed to “Marina” which is not the name of a beautiful woman but means “Tourist Port”, “Port for Yachtsmen”, this infrastructure lacks all the technical-scientific-economic and social conditions of adaptability. Planning the tourist port means prefiguring a territorial structure and integrating it with the hinterland, studying the competition. Pleasure boating and fishing could never coexist in the same body of water. Having said this, the refuge port, with the necessary modifications, must be used only as a maritime fishing infrastructure and for the sale of fish and related fish products.
Port for yachtsmen. “The Marina di Gela” downstream of Montelungo. The only possible location in Gela for a tourist port and not to build an unusable structure, in this location the hills and the sea merge giving natural spectacles unique in the world. Here my project would intertwine the tourist port, golf course, commercial areas and much more. In this area there is space, we have roads, and it would not fear competition from Licata and Ragusa. Furthermore, within a few tens of metres, the seabed south of Montelungo reaches a depth of around six metres, a notable saving on the construction of piers. It would be the first yachting port with an 18-hole golf course in the Mediterranean. The former Drogo farm, owned by the municipality, would be perfectly suited to being transformed into a five-star resort.
(Unfortunately we anticipate that the old pier built one hundred years ago, the first concrete structure in Gela, once demolished, will never be rebuilt again.)
Naturally this project idea will have to be developed in every aspect with numerous bodies, so I believe it will be a long and difficult journey. It would be appropriate to delve deeper into the topic of maritime development with students of all levels. Illusion of seeing it realized in our city in a short time has its charm but rationality says otherwise, nothing is impossible for the next generations if we begin a path of thematic design positivism in schools.
Due to a purely historical and prestigious fact, the project was called “Progetto Gelone”. Dr. Francesco Agati
Place: Real Estate Studio, Berchet, 5, GELA, CALTANISSETTA, SICILY
