Venice Flood Barrier Works Underway

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Some 40 years after an abnormal high tide flooded the city and made 5,000 people homeless, the massive marine construction project to protect Venice in Italy is now underway. The Modello Sperimentale Elettromeccanico (MOSE) project involves a system of moveable, automatically operated dikes being placed at the entrance of the three main canals connecting the Adriatic Sea to the Venice lagoon.

Dikes to prevent Venice flooding will be placed in the three main canals connecting the Adriatic Sea to the Venice lagoon.

There will be 79 sluice gates, 5m thick, 20m wide and up to 28m high fixed to the seabed, which will rise when an incoming tide exceeds the alert level of 110cm. These intelligent barriers will normally be filled with water and lie on the bottom but when flood conditions are alerted the water in the barriers is ejected by a compressed air system and they rise to the surface, shutting the entrances to the three canals to stop the encroaching tide. The system is due to be operational in 2011.

Argument has raged since the flooding of November 1966 over alternative concepts and their environmental implications. The project remains controversial, with environmentalists and many others, including the Mayor of Venice, saying the barriers will cause as much damage as they prevent. WWF Italy called for shutting the Venice cargo port and banning cruise ships from the lagoon as a more effective alternative. Meanwhile, the estimated cost quickly doubled to 4.3bn.

TTS Marine ASA, through its subsidiary TTS Handling Systems, has landed a contract with Italian contractor GLF to develop a heavy lift system that can lift 28,000 tons. The foundations for the gates are enormous concrete blocks the size of a football field, comprised of concrete elements weighing up to 25,000 tons.

The concrete elements will be transported from their construction site with the heavy lift system from TTS to a ship lift supplied by TTS partner Rolls-Royce Naval Marine.

They will be lowered to sea level then floated to the lagoon canals, where each element will be lowered to the seabed.

Reson Mediterranean has been awarded a contract to deliver, install and train personnel to operate a Reson SeaBat 8125 multibeam sonar system which will be used to monitor all underwater operations during the project.

TTS will develop and deliver their heavy lift system within 24 months and will also participate in transporting the concrete elements from the construction site to the lagoon openings.

MJInformation No: 21805