“Genoa subport tunnel project to be redone”
For the Superior Council of Public Works the preliminary project of the Genoa sub-port tunnel, the main one of the compensation works that Autostrade per l’Italia has included in the 3.4 billion euro ‘compensation’ package agreed in October 2021 with the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Region, the Municipality and the Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea, is to be rewritten.
It can be read at the conclusion of the opinion on the technical-economic feasibility project of the work (edited by Aspi ma insert in the extraordinary program of the Adsp) released just before Christmas, with which the Council invites to put the Pfte back to the proposer and to review it on the basis of the numerous prescriptions, indications and observations formulated.
The findings are extensive and detailed and touch on all aspects of the project, in particular those relating to safety and in particular relating to the risk of fires, in the view of the Council “the preliminary study of risk analysis is not sufficient” and “unacceptable to postpone to the subsequent phases the in-depth analysis and integrations required on safety issues from the design”. Then there are “shortcomings” and “serious inconsistencies” in terms of road network aspects, “not very detailed” descriptions relating to plant engineering (electricity, ventilation, etc.), partial answers regarding the hydrological and hydraulic criticalities encountered by the Council.
If for the expropriations (which in the port will have an impact above all on Csm – Centro Smistamento Merci, whose building will be demolished to make room for the tunnel entrance site, and on some ship repair activities but only when, once the main tubes have been completed, the the construction of the intermediate connection of the work with the urban road network) the finding concerns a slight inconsistency on the amounts posted (about 80 million euros), among the aspects of greatest impact for the port area involved, there are the problems inherent in the location of the resulting material, over 2.4 million cubic metres.
Among the destinations, the preliminary project indicates 600 thousand cubic meters for the filling of the caissons of the first phase of the dam, another 600 thousand cubic meters for the filling of the caissons of the second phase and 780 thousand cubic meters for the filling of Calata Bengasi. A work, the second phase of the dam, not even financed, just as the process of filling Benghazi is controversial (it was foreseen by the concession agreements with Ati Messina – Terminal San Giorgio, in charge of the terminal operators, who moreover have to time asked to avoid it).
The Board does not enter into the merits of these considerations but underlines that at least for “materials that it will not be possible to reuse in time (see the timing for filling the caissons of the new breakwater rather than the Benghazi drop) and/or for the characteristics of the same, further possible external uses and/or potential sites for landfilling must be identified”.
This too, like a large part of the considerations on the other issues (in particular those relating to safety), leads the Council to invite the correction in the Pfte, also because the necessary additions will impact on the cost of the work and therefore on the relative analysis cost-benefit. Which must necessarily be preliminary to the continuation of the process, given that any price increases can, on the basis of the 2021 agreement, be covered only by deducting what is necessary from the other works of the agreement (including the fleet serving the airport) or by increasing ASPI rates.
The problem, however, is that the formal opinion of the Council, communicated between Christmas and New Year’s to the proposer (that is, formally, the Directorate General for Roads and Highways of the Ministry of Infrastructure) never reached Genoa, at least notify. So much so that the Region launched the paur (single regional authorization provision) before Christmas on the basis of a declaration with which Aspi at the end of November “took note”, off the record (the opinion having not been formalized), of the observations of the Council, ensuring its integration in the subsequent design phases.
And therefore, for public observations, design documents (starting from the safety plan, dated 15 November) referable to the definitive project but produced before the Council, just before Christmas, prescribed the prodromal reworking of the preliminary project, in a short circuit that casts a shadow on the future of the work.
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