Italy's New Genoa Breakwater Has Been Extended to 1.6 Kilometers

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 22, after the latest caisson installation was completed for Italy's new Genoa breakwater project, the overall structure reached a length of 1,600 meters. The caisson installed this time was the 10th completed this summer, and offshore construction on the project continues to accelerate. The project is invested in and built by the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority, implemented by the PerGenova Breakwater consortium, and led in construction by Webuild. At present, caisson installation, seabed reinforcement, breakwater superstructure, and wave wall construction are being advanced simultaneously, while the Port of Genoa remains in normal operation during construction.

Since the beginning of this year, the project's construction milestones have continued to advance. On June 9, after the 23rd caisson was installed, the total length of the breakwater exceeded 1 kilometer for the first time; on July 7, the 26th caisson completed offshore installation; on July 31, the project length increased to about 1,350 meters; and on August 10 it further reached 1.5 kilometers. After entering the summer construction window, the project completed 10 consecutive caisson installations, extending the breakwater outward by another approximately 100 meters in just over a month.

The new Genoa breakwater uses large prefabricated reinforced concrete caissons as its main structure. Some of the large caissons already installed on the project are 67 meters long, about 30 meters wide, and more than 33 meters high, with a single-unit weight of about 15,000 tonnes, equivalent to the height of a building of more than ten stories. Different construction sections use caissons of different specifications, among which some standard caissons measure approximately 40 meters × 25 meters × 18.7 meters. After the caissons are prefabricated on land or at dedicated production sites, they are towed by sea, positioned, and sunk into place to form a continuous protective structure.

The project's maximum construction water depth is close to 50 meters, making it one of the most difficult parts of the entire project. Before caisson installation, large-scale treatment of the soft seabed is required, and a crushed stone foundation layer must be laid to form a stable bearing surface. Previously disclosed progress shows that the project has cumulatively installed hundreds of thousands of linear meters of seabed reinforcement columns, while dredging and foundation filling continue. After the caissons are in place, construction must continue on the superstructure, wave wall, and toe protection blocks to form a complete offshore protection system.

In early September, the project had already started wave wall construction, and the works further advanced from a stage focused mainly on underwater foundations and caisson installation into above-water structural construction. The wave wall is arranged on top of the caissons to reduce the impact of waves on the port area; at the same time, seabed reinforcement and subsequent caisson installation are still being advanced in parallel. The project has therefore formed a multi-workface simultaneous construction state of "seabed treatment—caisson installation—superstructure—wave wall."

The new Genoa breakwater is planned to have a total length of about 6.2 kilometers. Once completed, it will further extend the port's main entrance waters toward the open sea and allow a new generation of large vessels up to about 400 meters long to enter the port area. The project as a whole is located in the offshore area of the existing port, with a maximum foundation depth of about 50 meters. Compared with traditional nearshore breakwaters, this project requires seabed reinforcement, production and transport of large caissons, and high-precision offshore installation under deep-water, open-sea conditions.

Having now reached 1.6 kilometers, the project has formed a relatively long continuous main structure, but subsequent construction tasks remain before the planned total length is reached. The current main work is still concentrated on the production and installation of the remaining caissons, seabed foundation treatment, and construction of the breakwater superstructure and wave wall.