New drafts for the ports of Venice and Chioggia. The Harbourmaster’s Office has issued an ordinance revising draft restrictions for vessels arriving at and departing from both lagoon ports.
More specifically, pursuant to ordinance no. 99 of the Venice Harbourmaster’s Office, the authorized transit draft for the Malamocco-Marghera Canal is now set at 11.50 metres (compared to 10.50 metres in 2018) for vessels with a maximum length of 230 metres; for vessels between 301 and 335 metres long, the maximum draft has been set at 10.50 metres.
As for the port of Chioggia, by means of Ordinance no. 61 issued by the Harbourmaster’s Office of Chioggia, the new draft limit has been increased to between 6.5 and 7 metres for the berths of the Val da Rio, while the maximum draft allowed for the berths of the ‘Saloni’-Outer Lombardo Canal (C1-C6) is 7 metres.
Draft could be increased thanks to maintenance work in the ship canals aimed at improving nautical accessibility. Started in 2019 and partly still in progress, maintenance work at the Malamocco-Marghera Canal has allowed the removal of about 1,000,000 cubic metres of sediment from the section between Turning Basin no. 3 in Fusina and the San Leonardo ‘bend’, for a total investment of approximately 18.4 million euro. About 150,000 cubic metres of the material removed were classified as ‘A’ sediment under the 1993 Sludge Protocol and were used for the morphological restoration of sandbanks, while the remainder – classified as ‘B’ sediment – were delivered to Isola delle Tresse.
At Chioggia, on the other hand, maintenance excavations removed a total of approximately 45,000 cubic metres of sediment, for a total investment of about 990,000 euro. All the material was classified as ‘B’ under the 1993 Sludge Protocol and was therefore delivered to Isola delle Tresse.
“I would like to thank the Port Authority of Venice and Chioggia for their new ordinances, which give credit to the maintenance work carried out in recent years – said Fulvio Lino Di Blasio, Chairman of the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority. Nautical accessibility is essential for the growth of ports in general, even more so for the Veneto port system whose special features – both from a maritime-operational and environmental point of view – demand innovation. That is the reason why we have given new impetus to active cooperation with all the bodies responsible for the environmental and economic protection of the lagoon – first and foremost the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Ministry for Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility, but also ISPRA, PIOPP and ARPAV – to achieve a new version of the Sludge Protocol. I strongly believe it is important to focus on innovative methods and technological solutions aimed both at the ordinary maintenance of the ship canals in the ports and, at the same time, environmental protection. Attracting traffic to support the growth of the Veneto ports should not be considered antithetical to the protection of the lagoon, but rather as part of a possible balance”.