Crotone – From 23 to 26 May, leveling operations were carried out on the access road to the old port of Crotone.
This ordinary maintenance intervention, pending the structural one relating to the extension of the “lanternino” pier, was necessary to restore adequate safety conditions and avoid strandings of ships in transit.
It is considered appropriate to highlight the role of the Maritime Authority which supported us throughout the process and which, in particular, guaranteed an ideal safety framework, among others, by monitoring and regulating traffic during operations.
This is the press release with which the port system authority of the southern Tirremo and Ionian seas (the former port authority of Gioia Tauro) announced the intervention carried out in recent days inside and especially at the entrance to the old port.
It’s a shame that this intervention was among the most anticipated in relation to the safety of the tourist port.
It was 2015precisely September 2015 when the Naval League of Crotone and the Yachting Kroton Club organized a singular and spectacular protest by lining up the boats of the two associations at the opening of the port to launch a sensational SOS.
«Once again the Crotone Naval League, together with the Yachting Kroton club – he explained Gianni Liotti (then secretary and now president of the Naval League) – implements an initiative to turn the spotlight on the age-old issue of securing the old port”.
An affair, which has not found a solution for decades, due to bureaucratic delays, stuck in a sort of rebound between the competences of the port authority and the archaeological superintendency.
«The problem is not the funds available for the construction of the extension of the outer pier but the bureaucratic obligations. The situation has been at a standstill for 23 years, there has been an executive project for 7 years but to date nothing has been done.”
Since that 11 September 2015, and after 32 years, finally today part of the works, those concerning the seabed and the entrance to the old port, have been carried out, others are under construction and the planning for the others is underway.
Among the ongoing interventions, some nearing completion, there is the consolidation of the defense works of the old port.
The sea, in fact, damaged the external wall (outer pier), “eating” the base of the foundation and putting at risk the strength of the wall itself, often stressed by strong winds.
The foundation reinforcement work is underway and the work should be completed soon.
The other important intervention, however, always concerns this side of the port and in particular the lengthening of the breakwater.
This is an important work because, once completed, it would make the port basin completely safe from any storm surge. The project, with a total value of more than six and a half million euros, involves the extension of the breakwater by 130 metres.
The objective is to reduce the impact of the wave agitation of the sea that is recorded within the basin of the old Port, especially with the storm surges coming from the south-east which pose a serious danger (in the past there have also been accidents and significant damage) pleasure boats and fishing boats
In reality, the process for the construction of the extension was already underway, the Gioia Tauro Authority had already completed the project and was awaiting the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) from the Ministry of the Environment which, however, in March this year decided to suspend the Environmental Impact Assessment procedure and requested a review of the project. Project which will therefore be re-entrusted in the next few days to restart the EIA process.
