Port of Genoa: Italy’s landmark growth project

The scale and complexity of the renovation of the Port of Genoa breakwater make this a unique European project.

In addition to doubling the port’s capacity to provide access for larger, more modern shipping containers, the project will see new infrastructure built around the port, encouraging investment in the local city. Ramboll’s international team of port and marine experts has been selected to provide design engineering services to the consortium, building the new breakwater for the West Ligurian Sea Port Authority, alongside F&M Ingegneria SpA. This is part of a joint venture led by Webuild, FINCOSIT, Fincantieri Infrastructure Opere Marittime, and Sidra. The project is co-financed by the Italian Government’s National Plan for Recovery and Resilience.

The project will rely upon complex technical solutions to meet the numerous challenges of the build, not least of which is its scale. Set 450 metres behind the existing barrier, the breakwater will run to a length of 6.2 kilometres, with the foundation reaching a depth of 50 metres at points, something without precedent elsewhere in the world. Whilst some of the prefabricated watertight caissons in the construction of the breakwater will be of conventional size, some of the remarkable depths will require caissons the equivalent height of a 10-storey building. These caissons will be transported to the dam by prefabricated basins once the foundation has been built.

Sustainable credentials sit at the forefront of the project. A significant feature is the recovery, reuse and transformation of excavated material to contribute to the total 7 million tons of rock needed for the breakwater’s foundation (which will require a transport fleet of a size never before seen in Italy). In a further win for the project’s credentials, more reinforced concrete will be used in the build than in the project’s feasibility study, replacing more carbon intensive materials. More than 1,000 direct and indirect jobs will also be created by the project.

Construction will begin on the breakwater in early 2023, with the project’s completion set for 2026. As the build process is taking place offshore, existing port activities will be left uninterrupted for the duration of the project.