November 2010
Halcrow has been appointed by Venice Port Authority to undertake a feasibility study for a new £1.1 billion offshore deep water terminal outside Venice Lagoon. As part of the ambitious plan, a new platform will be positioned eight nautical miles, about 14km, from the mainland where the sea bed has a natural depth of 20m.
The Port of Venice is part of the new Northern Adriatic multiport system, created to play a greater role in handling more Europe-Asia and Europe-Mediterranean cargo flows over the next ten years. The development of a new offshore terminal will provide a consolidated port base in the Mediterranean and attract shipping coming from the Suez Canal. The location of the Port of Venice (and that of other North Adriatic ports) is extremely convenient for goods imported or exported both from markets in the Far East and those in the Southern Mediterranean.
Halcrow’s project director, Payam Fouroudi explains: “The new port will provide for areas where containers are transferred to or from inland terminals where they are processed and distributed by rail and road links to the main local routes, as well as to and from markets in central and Eastern Europe. The facility will be able to cater for a capacity of between 1.5m and 3m teu, and handle ships of between 6,000 and 14,000 teu."
The port will be equipped to receive oil tankers as well as provide space for future expansion into other categories of goods, such as solid bulk cargo coming in on capesize vessels.
The two berth oil terminal site is designed to manage a maximum capacity of 7 million tonnes of crude and receive ships of over 150,000 tonnes, unloading directly into an underwater pipeline linked to refineries in Porto Marghera and Mantua.
On top of this, support services including such things as a desalinisation plant, emergency heliport, medical centre, buildings for staff, canteens and offices will have to be built, all of which will be supplied by undersea electrical cables supplemented with electricity derived from renewable sources.
A 3.5km outer breakwater will protect the terminal in all weather. The port will also act as a “refuge berth” when the MOSE barriers (Venices’ anti-flood system) are closed.