Venice Offshore Terminal Faces Opposition

Artist's Rendering of the Offshore Terminal The long-awaited construction of an offshore terminal off the Port of Venice has stumbled upon major opposition from Italian senators. Namely, Senators Francesco Russo and Marco Fellippi, backed by fifty cross-party colleagues, presented a document, which proposes streamlining of Eur 100 million of envisaged funds for the offshore terminal, for boosting logistical capacity of existing ports across Italy as needs for greater container handling capacity increases, Italian newspapers Il Piccolo writes. According to the document, the offshore terminal project off Venice is not environmentally sound nor financially viable taking into account the costs that would arise from transfer of cargo from the offshore terminal to the port. The senators said that instead of favoring local and regional projects, focus should be put on wider national interests and investments in integrated logistic structures at existing ports. The offshore terminal off the Port of Venice was proposed to be developed at some 8 miles off the Malamocco port mouth where the seabed has a natural depth of 20 m. The project objective was to boost the ports competitiveness in Europe by making way  for larger ships of up to 20,000 TEU. World Maritime News Staff