Campaign For A Living Venice

The company that manages the cruise ship terminal wants to excavate the floor of the Vittorio Emanuele canal to measure the toxicity of the sludge – with a view to a possible alternate route to San Marco

By Enrico Tantucci

1 May 2020

Excavation of the sludge from the Vittorio Emanuele canal: it will be the TAR of Veneto, with a judgement of merit, that will have the final word on the ongoing conflict between the Venezia Terminal Passeggeri (Vtp) on one hand and the Port Authority and Superintendent of Public Works on the other. The point of contention is the core drilling to analyze the sludge on the floor of the Vittorio Emanuele canal. The VTP wants to do the work at its own expense with project financing, to then use the canal as a possible alternate route from the Bacino di San Marco for cruise ships, still arriving in Marittima, as Mayor of Venice Luigi Brugnaro would also like, even if it seems for now that the new Government is not inclined to follow this road. But the Port – and the Superintendent of Public Works – has never responded to the partnership that manages the cruise ship terminal, which has therefore appealed to the TAR against the two authorities. The Port has already called on their legal team (the Zambelli Studio) to lead the defense.

At the end of December, Venezia Terminal Passeggeri – mostly controlled by the cruise companies themselves, such as Carnival, MSC and Royal Caribbean, among other corporations – filed and notified a lawsuit in the TAR against the Triveneto Superintendent of Public Works and the Port Authority of Venice, claiming damages because the two authorities have not permitted them to complete the preliminary investigations for the analysis of the sludge on the floor of the Vittorio Emanuele canal to ascertain its toxicity. The VTP would like to pay for the analysis itself, evidently with a view to then expanding to an actual project for a new route for the cruise ships along the Vittorio Emanuel canal to reach Marittima, about which much has been said, but which no one has presented so far.

VTP sent the request to the Superintendent and the Port in June of last year, asking for authorization for the excavation, for the performance and following management of the work necessary to resolve the problems with cruise ships’ access to Marittima Station, instead of transiting the Guidecca canal. According to VTP they were never given a response, and the request was followed by an injunction at the end of October, and finally the suit at the TAR of Veneto at the end of December. For its part the Port claims that the VTP’s arguments are unfounded, as the Port is the only entity entitled to carry out the core drilling, a position supported by an opinion from the State Attorney, as already announced by Port President Pino Musolino. However, seeing that the drilling has still not been done, the VTP is now asking the TAR to make them do it.

Source: La Nuova Venezia