The former Logistica Toscana engineer: «It will be able to attract many Amazonas in a logistics hub. In exchange, works and also environmental protection interventions ”

PISA. «Storage, logistics and goods sorting are words that outline a scenario of economic development of the coastal area that can be set in motion with the construction of the Navicelli canal dock. A full-blown synergy with Livorno to compete with the logistics systems of Northern Europe ». With the publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, the procedure for the construction of the Darsena Europa, or the expansion of the port of Livorno into the sea, began. Pisa looks at this prospect with concern, especially for the effects it can have on the coast in terms of marine erosion, with consequences for the environment and tourism.

A Pisan by adoption, the engineer Giovanni Bonadio, former president of Logistica Toscana (a company of the Region and the Chambers of Commerce), member of the council of the port of Livorno and of the board of directors of Toscana Aeroporti, explains why Pisa should look favorably on the port development of Livorno. But it also suggests with what cautions to move and what Pisa should ask in return.

Engineer Bonadio, explain why Pisa should support this operation …

«A port system is not made up only of works at sea. 50% is also of ground works, that is the infrastructural connections with the markets of origin and destination of the goods. A port is all the more competitive the more it is able to bring goods to destination markets. The Tuscan ports have the characteristics to compete with the large logistics systems of Northern Europe thanks to the infrastructures present and well-organized logistics. The hinterland of the port of Livorno consists of a triangle that has Pisa, Livorno and Pontedera for vertices. An area with great logistical potential, which is already an object of interest from large investors. The airport system and the Navicelli canal, which represents a waterway for goods that leads directly to the port of Livorno, can become even more important infrastructures. In the Darsena Pisana there are suitable spaces for a city logistic of the metropolitan area of ​​the coast, that is the urban distribution of goods. A first concrete example is the Amazon center in Montacchiello ».

But what would be the keystone for you to expand the benefits of the operation in this way?

«The direct connection of the port to the north-south railway line that passes through Florence, but without passing through the now congested node of Pisa. It would therefore be a question of passing through the connection of the Pisa-Collesalvetti-Vada with the Pisa-Florence which takes place at the height of the industrial areas of Pisa, while the option of a connection also up to Pontedera remains valid. Moreover, this can lead and not a little to the speeding up of the Pisa-Florence railway connection because in this way they would free useful traces on the section and lighten the traffic ».

How should Pisa and how could it fit into this reasoning?

«If the connection with the Interport is now an established fact (RFI has already started the procedures), now the connection with Montacchiello, which would be a line of not many kilometers and not excessive expense, has to be defined. In the area, on the sea side, the urban planning tools already include the construction of a station right in the Montacchiello area. Pisa would be so fully in the Europe Platform, as I prefer to call it ».

Do you still think it necessary for Pisa to move in this area to ask for compensatory works?

“The request for compensation works is fully becoming, which on the other hand are also important for the port, such as the rationalization of the system of bridges on the spillway and modernization of the road section from Tirrenia to Calambrone”.

Last but not least, the issue of environmental impact and the sources for coastal erosion …

«For the evaluation of the impacts on the coasts a study of the coastal dynamics was carried out with the help of numerical modeling of maritime execution. The objective was to evaluate the geographical extension and the extent of the possible influence that the new works can exert along the coastal strip located north of the port of Livorno, taking into account the geomorphological conformation around the settlement of the system. port, the presence of the geomorphological complex of the Meloria Shoals and the conditioned average regime of exposure to wave motion. In the subsequent design phases it will in any case be necessary to proceed with an in-depth study of the modeling study which will also have to analyze the more specific and detailed localized phenomena that may be exercised by the new port breakthroughs contemplated by the project, as requested by Pisa with energy “.

But how could Pisa make its voice heard more?

“It is a precise condition to be expected from the assignee of the works who will win the tender published”.

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