The proposals for non-substantial modifications to the Port Masterplan in the Technical-Functional Adjustment (TFA) adopted this morning by the Management Committee with which the Port Network Authority aims to make Livorno port more efficient and more competitive are as follows:
Constructing a mooring dock for harbour service boats and a tower for harbour pilots at the end of the Alto Fondale quay; reprofiling the quay on the North-West side of the industrial canal; re-calibrating the areas allocated for shipbuilding and the functional modification of the former Enel power station area.
Harbour pilot tower & Alto Fondale harbour service mooring dock
The first proposal highlights the need to build an infrastructure at the Alto Fondale quay with moorings for harbour service boats and a building (tower) with offices and a control room with a view of the port and the harbour to enhance the safety of shipping and guarantee rapid response operations.
The Service Dock, which will accommodate harbour pilot, mooring and tug service fleets, will be built by reprofiling the end of the quay to reduce it .
The harbour service mooring dock is estimated to cost 4.76 million euros and take 18 months. Building the harbour pilot tower is budgeted at €15 million and will require 13 months to complete.
Improving the industrial canal’s safety
The second proposal is to partially modify the industrial canal, the most inward canal suitable for shipping inside the port, accessible from the harbour entrance facing the Marzocco tower. The document points out how the current bank of the canal in the part facing the Darsena Ugione dock is only partially quayed and in a very advanced state of decay.
The modification envisaged in the TFA concerns the western bank of the industrial canal after the Calata Bengasi mooring and is designed to make it safer for ships to transit along the canal.
The aim is to realign the central section of the bank, which is now lined with natural boulders and set back six metres from the quayed part. Reinforcing the industrial canal embankment is expected to cost €10.8 million and €540,000 for dredging.
New boatbuilding areas
The third proposed amendment points out how the Port Masterplan had designated boatbuilding activities to the Darsena Calafati dock side. Moreover, the plan to double the access road to the Molo Italia quay in the strip between the two docks, would mean further restricting the area where its activities are located.
Instead, the proposed technical-functional adjustment foresees allocating approximately 18,000m2 for boatbuilding in areas adjacent to the ones designated in the Port Masterplan. With a view to developing boat-building facilities, the TFA also suggests extending this activity over an area of about 5,800 m2 towards the Alto Fondale quay
A new life for the Marzocco power station port areas
Finally, the last proposal for a non-substantial amendment to the Port Masterplan regards redeveloping the area where the thermoelectric powerplant was located. The plant was decommissioned in March 2015, with the Port Masterplan already approved. At that time, this area was designated for ‘energy industry’ purposes.
Today, the decommissioning of the power plant and the termination of activities associated with it means this area could be used differently, specifically for port operations. The idea is to extend commercial activities to this part of the port too, which, moreover, featured an area without any designated functional purpose.
Translation by Giles Foster
