Major developments at Ravenna

The Port of Ravenna is the only port serving the Emilia-Romagna Region of Northern Italy as well as being the port that services much of Italy’s offshore oil and gas industry that is located close offshore. The port comprises shipyards, multipurpose terminals, bulk cargo terminals and a containerized cargo terminal. More recently there have been developments in the outer harbour that include a cruise ship terminal and one of the largest marinas on the Adriatic coast.

The major contract for the construction of what will be known as the Ravenna Port Hub has been awarded to a consortium that includes Dredging International, a subsidiary company of the Belgian contractor DEME and Italian construction company Consorzio Stabile Grandi Lavori. The tender requirements were announced a year ago and the contract award follows a tender procedure for the Ravenna Port Hub. With a total value of €197,8 million the project is financed by the Italian Inter-ministerial Committee for Economic Planning (CIPE), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union and the Port System Authority.

The basic requirement of the contract is to develop the necessary port infrastructure which will allow the port to handle larger vessels of 75,000dwt and containerships of up to 8,000TEU, as well as higher traffic volumes. This in turn is expected to have significant socioeconomic effects in the region.

According to DEME the dredging work is due to get underway in the first quarter of 2021. This dredging work is aimed to deepen the entrance channel from its current maintained depth of 10.5 metres to 12.5 metres. This first phase of the project includes the excavation of 5 million cubic metres of sediments in the both the outer and inner channels to create the deeper channel. Included in the project will be the reconstruction of the existing quays over a length of 6.5 kilometres to allow them to adapt to the new channel depths and the construction of a 1,000-metre long quay for the Peninsula Trattaroli.

Currently the Peninsula Trattaroli is an undeveloped area in the port and it is hoped that the new quays will attract further investment.

By Dag Pike