One of the world’s deepest breakwater to enable large cargo ships to dock at ligurian port

• The new breakwater to help make Port of Genoa accessible to the latest large container ships 

• Webuild to lead consortium to build project with Fincantieri Infrastructure Opere Marittime, Fincosit and Sidra 

• Innovation and sustainability in project’s construction which will employ more than 1,000 people

• Project together with Terzo Valico dei Giovi, of European importance, strengthening Genoa port system’s and northern Italy’s role in TEN-T Rhine-Alpine Corridor 

MILAN, October 12, 2022 – Webuild will lead the consortium that will build a breakwater for the Port of Genoa with partners Fincantieri Infrastructure Opere Marittime, Fincosit and Sidra in a project valued in the client budget at a combined €928 million. Webuild will have a 40% stake in the consortium.

The breakwater (known in Italian as “Nuova Diga Foranea”) will be a unique project worldwide due to its scale and engineering complexity. It will be built offshore, leaving port activities uninterrupted. It will rest on an underwater foundation, whose varying depth will be up to 50 metres, making it one of the deepest in the world. It will cover a combined 6.2 kilometres, more than 4 of which under Phase A of the project.

The project will be the biggest renewal of the port’s infrastructure on the Ligurian coast in 25 years. The breakwater will widen the transit and manoeuvre areas for ships within the port area. By increasing its capacity to receive ships, the project will provide the port with the infrastructure requested by major shipping companies and help improve the competitiveness of the Ligurian and Italian port system. It will guarantee direct access to the port’s terminal facilities, as well as provide a wide turning basin for container ships. At up to 400-450 metres in length, these ships are double the size of those that the port can currently receive. The project’s impact on the port, the city and the country will be felt from the outset with the creation of more than 1,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Commissioned by the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority, the project belongs to an extraordinary programme to upgrade the infrastructure at the Port of Genoa. It will be co-financed by the government with funds that are supplementary to the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience (“PNRR”). It also stands to benefit from the “Decreto Aiuti (D.L. 17 maggio 2022, n. 50)” (Aid Decree) issued by the Italian government. 

The project entails the construction of a breakwater approximately 450 metres beyond the current barrier. In Phase A, which is financed, its foundation will be created with an estimated seven million tonnes of rock mass up to 50 metres underwater. Approximately 100 prefabricated caissons of reinforced concrete will be laid upon the foundation. The caissons will be up to 33 metres high, 35 metres wide and 67 metres long, each equal to a 10-storey building.

The infrastructure will be enhanced by innovative technology, construction techniques and sustainability characteristics together with the application of the principles of a circular economy, including the recovery re-use and transformation of excavated material.  

The breakwater is an important project at a European level as well as regional and of course national.  By improving access to the port of Genoa by sea, it will strengthen its strategic role within the Rhine-Alpine Corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). Another project which is part of the Corridor which will reach Rotterdam from Genoa is the Terzo Valico dei Giovi-Genoa Junction, which is being built by Webuild. The Terzo Valico, which will contribute to having the Port of Genoa make the most of the increased traffic in an integrated logistic network, has seen excavation work reach 81% completion, and the excavation of 73.4 kilometres of tunnels out of a total of nearly 91 kilometres planned for the project.