The government has decided to temporarily redirect ship docking. A ideas competition launched for moorings outside the lagoon. Zaia: “Decree of 2012”. The government has decided to temporarily redirect ship docking. A ideas competition launched for moorings outside the lagoon. Zaia “Decree of 2012”.
Last updated 1 April 2021
The Council of Ministers, on the proposal of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Minister of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility Enrico Giovannini and Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini, has approved a decree-law introducing urgent provisions on transport and the regulation of cruise traffic in the Venice lagoon, effectively confirming news from just a few days ago: large ships will no longer be permitted to pass through the Grand Canal and will have to dock at Marghera, where a new berth will be built. The government has also allocated 2.2 million euros for 2021.
Just hours after the celebrations marking the 1,600th anniversary of its founding, there is more good news for Venice. The government, through the ministers of Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani, Culture Dario Franceschini, Tourism Massimo Garavaglia and Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility Enrico Giovannini, has agreed to temporarily redirect large ship traffic from Venice to Marghera, "in order to protect a historical and cultural heritage that belongs not only to Italy but to the whole world".
The decision comes after, in June 2019, the MSC Opera cruise ship collided with a moored vessel at San Basilio, crumpling it and spreading panic among tourists on board and near the ship. But, more importantly, it effectively puts into practice the Clini-Passera decree of 2012, which banned the passage of ships exceeding 40,000 gross tonnes through the San Marco canal and the Giudecca canal.
The decree, previously suspended pending "the identification of alternative solutions" that were supposed to be put forward by the maritime authority but were never presented, now effectively comes into force — albeit temporarily — redirecting the large ships that for years have endangered the survival of the city itself and of the delicate lagoon ecosystem. "Essentially, the direction is towards using Marghera for large ships, using the existing road network", commented President Luca Zaia at the customary press conference held at the Civil Protection headquarters in Marghera. "The law dates from February 2012 — nine years have passed".
The official communiqué from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility states that it has been decided "to launch an ideas competition to bring moorings outside the lagoon and resolve the problem of large ship transit in Venice in a structural and definitive manner".
According to the local newspaper Il Gazzettino, the Port System Authority of the Northern Adriatic Sea (Adspmas) has already issued a tender "for the construction of the new cruise terminal in the North industrial canal — North bank of Porto Marghera", which is expected to include the design of a passenger terminal with a quay facing the North industrial canal. "The aim is to reclaim, for port purposes, an area that is currently degraded and underused, with a new location for services including those of an urban character".
