North Adriatic Sea Port Authority publishes call for bids as outlined in decree law of 1 april 2021
As outlined in the Decree Law of 1 April 2021, n 45 converted into law 75 on 17 April 2021, the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority this morning published the call for an “idea competition” for the collection of proposals, ideas and technical and economic feasibility projects related to the construction and management of mooring points for cruise and container ships outside the protected waters of the Venetian Lagoon, with the aim of mitigating the development of cruise activities in the territory of Venice and its lagoon and safeguarding the uniqueness and excellence of the cultural, landscape and environmental heritage of its territory.
The notice states that proposals and projects must comply with the following requirements: ensure the operation and safety of navigation even in adverse weather and sea conditions and ensure sustainability from an environmental, energy and landscape point of view; provide connection to land interchange nodes and TEN-T networks; guarantee the reception of transoceanic container services (Gateway port and transshipment) and cruise ships (Home Port).
The notice also specifies that the port must be designed and built outside the protected waters of the lagoon, meaning the areas outside the lagoon‘s limits in front of the Veneto regional coastal arc and not beyond the national territorial waters.
The international call is divided into two phases: the first, which will end by 31 December 2021, involves the presentation of ideas. At the end of this period, the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority will appoint a commission composed of five experts with proven experience in transport engineering, port works and infrastructure in general, transport and the transport economy, which will select the top three design proposals for the second phase, in which technical and economic feasibility plans will be developed. The second phase will end on 31 December 2022, after which, and by 30 June 2023, the commission will nominate the winning project from among the three proposals.
The Ministry of Sustainable Infrastructures and Mobility will recognize a reimbursement of expenses, for a total amount of 2.2 million euros, to be divided between the 3 subjects that complete the technical and economic feasibility planning
All planning and design companies, even those in the form of a temporary joint venture, that have recorded a turnover of at least 10 million euros in the last 3 years and that demonstrate they have planned works of a minimum value of 500 million euros in the last 10 years of operation are allowed to take part in the international tender. The notice is also published on the organization’s website. The sole person in charge of the procedure is Antonio Revedin, Director of Strategic Planning and Development of the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority.
“The North Adriatic Sea Port Authority offices have worked in recent months”- President of the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority Fulvio Lino Di Blasio commented- “in harmony with The Ministry of Sustainable Infrastructures and Mobility, developing a tender, defined in Legislative Decree 45/2021 as ‘Urgent measures in the field of transport and for the regulation of cruise traffic and maritime transport of goods in the Venetian Lagoon’ then converted into law 75/2021, designed to safeguard the functions of Home Port and Gateway of the Port of Venice to which economic revitalization and employment not only of the city and of the entire logistic ecosystem are linked but also of the whole region, and to protect Venice as a cultural, landscape and environmental heritage of humanity. The project that will arise from the tender, which refers for the first time in Italy to Article 156, paragraph 7 of the Code of Public Contracts, must be truly innovative and sustainable in order to target port activity in the twenty-first century. For this we will make available to participants all the papers and project documentation created thus far in relation to the construction of a port outside the lagoon as commissioned by the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority itself so as to allow participants to understand what has been done so far, and to surpass, in technological, operational and logistical terms, the solutions hypothesized until now. The Port System Authority intends to play a diligent part in achieving this goal within the time frame defined by the national government, and I am sure it will be able to count on the support and collaboration of all institutions, both local and national, that are involved.”