Left pending for three years, between the criminal investigation that shook the port of Genoa and the delay in the start of work on the sub-port tunnel, the filling of the Giaccone and Inglese quays in the historic basin of Sampierdarena now re-emerges in a document from a few days ago by the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority.
A decree by the director of tenders Luca Nuzzolo just published, in fact, assigns a specialist study service on the verification of ‘non-environmental relevance’ in relation to the “start of technical functional adaptation for the inclusion of some project interventions included within the S3 and S5 areas of Genoa Sampierdarena”. The areas, that is, in which the Giaccone and Inglese quays fall, overlooking Genoa Port Terminal (Spinelli group), Terminal Rinfuse Genova (Spinelli and Msc) and Bettolo (Msc).
At the moment, no clarification from Palazzo San Giorgio as to whether or not this is the procedure that had been sketched out by the then president Paolo Emilio Signorini, urged by Spinelli and mentioned by the Liguria Region under the presidency of Giovanni Toti in the approval process for the tunnel (inappropriately: a procedure for a variant of the Port Master Plan was given as started, but in reality it never began). The criminal investigation concluded with the plea bargains of Signorini, Toti and Aldo Spinelli, the prolongation of the tunnel contract (the works are being awarded in these weeks) and the dispute over the Gpt concession had frozen the process, which the new course of Matteo Paroli now seems intent on restarting from the same point, also from an administrative point of view.
The choice of a Technical Functional Adaptation, even though the drafting of the new port master plan is in an advanced stage of gestation, would in fact solve several problems for the Adsp, since, unlike a partial variant to the current Prp and unlike the adoption of a new Prp, this procedure would be immune (all the more so if supported by an opinion of non-environmental relevance) from the Strategic Environmental Assessment to which, by law, variants to the Prp and adoptions of new Prps are subject. It should not be forgotten, in fact, that precisely in the context of a similar procedure – the green light from the Ministry of the Environment for the backfilling of Calata Concenter – the Ministry of Culture through the Superintendency was clear in rejecting the backfilling of the adjacent quays, namely Giaccone and Inglese.
The Technical Functional Adaptation, in addition to a planimetric redesign of the area, could also contemplate (as Spinelli requested as early as autumn 2023) a modification of the functional characterization of the areas involved, dedicating them to full container (only Bettolo currently has this designation) and provide for the annexation of the new yards (almost 190 thousand square meters) to existing concessions, whereas a variant and especially a new Prp would require on the one hand a demand analysis on the need for a new full container terminal and on the other hand, in the event of a positive outcome of the latter, a public tender procedure for the new compound it would create.
The fact remains that the Atf, which must pass the scrutiny of the Management Committee, at least under current law (with the reform being drafted in Parliament this constraint seems destined to loosen considerably) must respect the limit of “non-substantial” alteration of the Prp “in terms of objectives, strategic choices and functional characterization of port areas”. In this regard, compared to three years ago, there is a substantial difference in favor of the Adsp: whoever could raise objections – the only full container operator at the port not involved: Singapore’s Psa – months ago began a path of negotiated pacification with the authority which, in summary, provides for the renunciation of any objection in exchange for the acceptance of significant changes to its concession.
