“Darsena Europa’s construction costs are under control” according to the project’s Special Commissioner, Luciano Guerrieri.
In an interview with il Tirreno journalist Stefano Taglione, the President of the North Tyrrhenian Port Network Authority pointed out that the public investment for expanding Livorno port seaward had increased from the original 450 to the current 530 million euros. The exact figure and final timetable will be announced once the executive project has been given the go-ahead, which requires ARPAT’s approval of the monitoring plan requested by the EIA commission.
“A large part of the extra cost,” he explained, “is due to the enlargement of the sludge containment basin, which is justified by the need to accommodate all the dredged material which was originally to be used for replenishing the shoreline. After the sludge had been analyzed, however, this initial solution was deemed impracticable, as the material was found to be unsuitable for this purpose.”
President Guerrieri spoke to the Tirreno newspaper after the Court of Auditors’ auditing panel resolution which, in relation to the project’s state of progress and the increase in the cost of materials, recommended that the Authority take all necessary measures to ensure a definitive timeline was established.
There have been growing concerns over the increase in sea-laying construction costs in Tuscany Regional Administration’s updated price list. Mr. Guerrieri considers them to be too high and attributable to “an incorrect assessment of the costs for chartering sea-laying vessels, probably due to a somewhat incomplete market survey.”
Besides, the contract’s regulatory reference framework is the former procurement code (legislative decree 50/2016), which raises a number of critical issues over price revision. The obligation to revise is not regulated in the contractual documents, which date back to 2021, and Legislative Decree n. 50 2022 allows for price revision mechanisms until December 2025. It follows that, from 2026 onwards, for the entire duration of the project, it will not be possible to revise the prices set in the contract in 2021, at least at the present time, despite the fact that they are far removed from current market conditions.
However, Mr. Guerrieri pointed out that he has the resources to deal with the situation. “If necessary,” he said, “we will resort to the limit of 50% of the funds specifically set aside for unforeseen events in the economic framework of each intervention, to the residual amounts of the sums available, and to the sums deriving from tender discounts if no other allocation is foreseen.
In addition, the Port Network Authority has also signed two contracts with the European Investment Bank and Cassa e Depositi e Prestiti for the disbursement of 50 and 90 million euro loans respectively. Money that its commission body could decide to use, even partially, should the need arise.
In the meantime, over the next few weeks the commission body will be working on preparing the call for tenders to individuate private party and/or private individuals who will have to take charge of completing the project, building the yards, carrying out urbanization work and managing the terminal for a number of years yet to be defined. The cost for the private stakeholder is expected to be around €300 million.
“Our aim,” said Mr. Guerrieri, “is to make sure that as many operators as possible take part, as Livorno’s Prefect, Giancarlo Dionisi, has also quite rightly recommended.
We aim to finish the public part by the end of 2029
Translation by Giles Foster