Dams are being controlled by the old room from 2012, with radio links provided by military engineers. The wrong plates and now unavailable micropiles cause delays.
3 September 2020
By Alberto Vitucci
The “Control Room” for MoSE is not ready. Completion of the work is delayed six months. And in the absence of the large “Control Room” to raise the dams they will have to use the “backup” Control Room and a radio link provided by Army engineers.
The completion date of 30 June is delayed six months, a date which had already been “updated”, considering the contract called for the completion of work on 2 February 2020. Slowdowns that not even the creation of the “Sblocca cantieri” commission has eliminated, which originated in the past.
Their origins are in errors and poorly done work, especially at the foundation of what is supposed to be the new large and modern Control Room. The original design is by Thetis, and the work by Mantovani, the primary shareholder of Consorzio Venezia Nuova. After careful inspection, special administrators Fiengo and Ossola, who came in after being named by Anac and the Ministry of the Interior after the scandal in 2014, have removed the Paduan company, which has had a monopoly since the era of the Galan government, from the job, and have assigned it to CCC. But after a few months a letter arrived from Luigi Basso, the president of the cooperative, which has offices in Musile di Piave. “For a series of reasons that are not attributable to this company”, writes the company’s manager, “we are requesting a postponement of 150 days beyond the projected completion date”.
Among the “reasons” are problems with static on the plates, and micropiles that are “unavailable” on the market. Likewise the Salone Nautico, which according to the Director of Works Marcello Carelli would have caused delays in the progress of the work in the summer of 2019.
The fact is that the Control Room is delayed again. The costs are not trivial in this giant operation of six billion Euro. Three and half million budgeted to build the infrastructure within the Arsenale, another 6.5 million to pay FastWeb, the telecommunications company that won the contract. Now, right in the middle of Arsenale Nord, the Tesa 112, which should become the “heart” of the MoSE system, is only a collection of plates and a deposit for materials. Rendering it operational will take another six months.
Meanwhile they are trying to guide the movements of the dams from the old Control Room, made in 2012 with now obsolete technology. And the connections, as happened at the last “inauguration” in the presence of Premier Conte and Minister De Micheli, will rely on the Army radio links.
This is not the only incomplete project inside the large Arsenale. The future of the historic Bacini di carenaggio, at one time destined to become the maintenance area for the dams, is also awaiting a response from the Provveditorato and Commissioner Spitz. For two years there a provision has existed that establishes the advisability of moving the work back to Marghera, signed by the former Superintendent, Roberto Linetti. Other work has been completed, but the small companies have not been paid, for a total of over a million Euro. Finally, they must determine if the Nord area of the monumental complex of the Arsenale should be transformed into the maintenance center for the dams, or used for shipbuilding, keeping only the MoSE Control Room inside.
Source: La Nuova Venezia
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