With a progress status reaching 74% at the end of February, the new breakwater of the port of Vado Ligure is changing its face.
This was decided by the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority, which initiated the appropriate procedure within the Liguria Region. In a nutshell, as stated in the documentation, it was decided not to position the sixteenth and final planned caisson (which was supposed to be placed ‘in a hammerhead’ configuration and then removed, once the Phase 2 works started, i.e., the further extension of the structure, designed as protection for the new Apm Terminals platform).
This last caisson, in fact, has been ‘lent’, in a protective function, to the nearby construction site where the caissons for the new breakwater of the port of Genoa are being built, and will therefore be ‘engaged’ until the end of 2027. The effects of ‘cutting’ one caisson on the protective functionality of the breakwater do not seem – the point is not explored in depth in the documentation – to outweigh the advantages: “Eliminating the transitional ‘hammerhead’ phase would bring multiple environmental, functional, and economic benefits, mainly related to the lower amounts of stone material required for constructing the foundation mound of the ‘in-line’ caisson and the reduction of intervention times, as the works would already be functional for the realization of the second phase of the breakwater.”
The other factor that necessitated the variant was the environmental clearance for the project.
For the construction and management of a small-scale LNG /or bio-LNG loading point and storage facility in the port of Vado Ligure, which “validates the hypothesis of a berth at the future new breakwater of the port of Vado Ligure, in order to guarantee full operability of the Reefer Terminal quay even in the presence of the LNG vessel.”
In essence, a berth will be built upstream of the breakwater for the storage facility, so as not to block the container terminal’s activities during LNG unloading operations. To do this, it was decided to abandon the idea of using two of the caissons from the portion of the breakwater to be dismantled as protective works for the new breakwater, instead allocating them as the foundation for the new berthing area. In their place, newly produced tetrapods will be positioned.
On the environmental impact front, the documentation presented by the Adsp seems to highlight a positive or at least non-negative impact of the variant (which overall involves a greater use of stone materials by about 6,000 tonnes but a saving of about 6,100 cubic meters of concrete), while “the economic definition of the variant – specified the Adsp – is still in its final stages.”
According to the authority, “this is mainly a technical and functional update of the intervention, aimed at adapting some works to the evolution of the operational context and the actual needs that emerged during the execution of the work. The variant concerns, in particular, aspects of design adjustment, optimization of some works, improvement interventions on the functionality of the infrastructure, and the restoration of the south-east quay, already planned in the Authority’s programming and now included in the ongoing contract.”
Regarding the project related to LNG, “it is specified that the works for the breakwater and those connected to the storage facility investments are distinct and autonomous from each other from a design and construction perspective.
Within the scope of the variant, a targeted adjustment of the internal configuration of the dam has been planned, in order to improve the maneuverability of vehicles in transit considering the current operational layout of the area,” added the Port Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea.
Finally, regarding the timeline, “the works of Phase 1 are currently about 80% advanced, with completion expected by the end of 2026, subject to weather and sea conditions.”
A.M.
