The usual circus of big infrastructure has started to take its first steps around the new breakwater in Genoa, the most relevant infrastructure to be built as part of the Italian plan for recovery and resilience (PNRR), according to its promoters. We talk again about this mega infrastructure precisely because some of the concerns that we already expressed to institutions (download the letter) and public opinion are becoming real.
As early as 2022, engineer Piero Silva, RINA project director for the construction fo the breakwater, left its position. As an established professional, he did not want to put his name next to an infrastructure that he considers to be “useless and with a very high technical risk.” Listen to what he told us.
Unfortunately, there has been no public debate on the new breakwater. No real questioning of the infrastructure, but above all no assessment of the cumulative impacts related to the projects that will simultaneously change the face of the Genoese port. And so the reorganization of the port presents more shadows than lights.
Up to now, only the sea explorations in front of APM Maersk’s platform in Vado Ligure, the first major port to be impacted by the infrastructure, have taken place. According to biologist Maurizio Wurtz, the construction of the breakwater “could affect the ports of Marseille and Barcelona, if not even Gibraltar”. Indeed, about 1,000 cubic meters of quarry material, consisting of one hundred columns of gravel in a rectangular marine area near the Maersk platform in the Ligurian port, is expected to be submerged.
In December 2022, we learned that 3 million euros of investment were spent in marketing and promotion to present the project to the general public. Too bad that there is no shortage of misgivings, as we report in this video.
January 27th 2023 will be a crucial date for the Genoa Regional Administrative Court’s ruling with respect to the appeal filed by the consortium that came second, behind WeBuild, in the tender for the work.
