Excavation projects for over 2.2 million cubic meters of sediment meant to clear the way for 160 cruise ships per year to dock at Marittima Station via the Malamocco-Marghera Canal and the Vittorio Emanuele III Canal, “likely by spring of 2027”.
Sept. 19, 2023
Port Authority of Venice President Fulvio Lino di Blasio announced plans for three excavation projects aimed at bringing mid-sized cruise ships back to Marittima Station in Venice by 2027. According to the plan, “cruise ships will arrive at Marittima Station via the Malamocco-Marghera Canal and the Vittorio Emanuele III canal, likely by spring of 2027”.
The plan is to excavate the Vittorio Emanuele III Canal in two phases, the first to a depth of 8 meters and a width of 60 meters, which will accommodate ships up to 50,000 tons. The second phase will expand this to 9 meters of depth and 80 meters of width, allowing the passage of 60,000-ton ships. The excavations are expected to remove 655,000 cubic meters and 625,000 cubic meters of sediment respectively and clear the way for 160 cruise ship arrivals annually.
The third phase of excavations, to be done in parallel with Vittorio Emanuele III, is the project for the Malamocco-Marghera Canal, also known as the Canale dei Petroli, which includes the creation of sandbars to protect the shorelines and the removal of a million cubic meters of sediment. A new island will be created in front of Fusina for the storage of all this sediment.
The plan was met with strenuous objection. City Councilor Gianfranco Bettin (Venezia Verde Progressista) called it “a project for the final disruption and distortion of the lagoon. It must be forcefully denounced at every institutional level and opposed in the city… Bringing the majority of the cruise ships into the heart of the city at Marittima and – he added – creating a new terminal at Montiron, in the heart of the northern lagoon as the Municipality wants to do, means dealing a mortal blow to the ecosystem in addition to bringing disruption, noise and ship exhaust to the historic city”. Regarding the creation of a new island for all the excavated sludge and sediment, concluded Bettin “this goes in the direction of a definitive artificialization of the lagoon… this project must be radically defeated”.
The Port Authority’s plans also raised serious concerns about the industrial revitalization of Porto Marghera. “The choice by the Municipality and Region to invest only in the tourist Port – commented Daniele Giordano, secretary of CGIL Venezia – may represent the end of any development project of the Venetian manufacturing site. Mayor Brugnaro talks about the “line of the citizens”, even though it is not clear who is interested in increasing the daily tourist presence in the city of water and in definitively transforming Marghera into an industrial archeology site. The simplified logistics zone, which was to be the spur for development in the area, has still not been implemented – continued Giordano – and none of the resources made available by the PNRR have been directed to Porto Marghera… The Region and Municipality want to transform Venice into a province that lives only on tourism and seasonal work, and which doesn’t create any quality, good paying jobs that can keep young people in our territory”.
“A cowardly decision”, inveighed Giovanni Andrea Martini, head of the party “Tutta la città insieme!”. “Just a few days after the UNESCO conference in Riyadh they announce the bid for excavating the Vittorio Emanuele III Canal to bring the cruise ships back to Marittima: they are going in exactly the opposite direction than what they made UNESCO believe. They’re counting on 160 more cruise ships per year, actually promoting “daytripper” tourism in Venice while they minimize the environmental impacts”.
Michele Boato, a councilor for the Municipality of Mestre, pointed out that most of the project has already been ruled out by past environmental evaluations and laws: “Somebody should inform President Fulvio Lino Di Blasio that a national Environmental Impact Evaluation has already established the unsustainability of an increase in naval traffic in the Canale dei Petroli, which was created in the 1960s and in fifty years has devastated all of the central lagoon”. Regarding the sludge and sediment deposit, Boato added: “The usable landfills are the expansion area of the Sali pier and the other landfills on the mainland. The special laws in force since 1973 do not allow any new landfill in the lagoon to facilitate and make the excavation of port canals easier and less expensive”.
-Sources: La Voce di Venezia, Venezia Today
Campaign For A Living Venice 