Extension of Galliera pier and docks near the Caracciolo bridge

The Company  An.Lavori of the Genoa harbour that later became  Grandi Lavori Fincosit S.p.A. was entrusted with the extension works of the Galliera pier and the construction of the new docks near the Caracciolo Bridge.

Water-break

The big extension on the West side of the harbour started in 1913 with the construction and the completion of the first section of the breakwater that was 1550 m long within the year  1926.

The dam was studied by the civil engineers and was a vertical  wall type supported by pillars made of three circular rocks to support the single weight (=220 t). The first pillar had a capacity higher than 100 tons and it was used for the sea works and studied and prepared in 1914 by Grandi Lavori Fincosit, with the possibility to take on board three elements of the highest weight.

The rocks’ empty spaces were then filled with lime concrete and pozzuolana.

In the second section of the water-break (1926 - 1929), 1850 m. long, built to protect the Sampierdarena basin, the dam’s section was improved by means of solid or gigantic rocks (4.50 m. wide in the longitudinal direction) weighing  up to 450 tons each.

For the shipping and laying of rocks Grandi Lavori Fincosit built the pontoon IMPERATOR, having a lifting power of 450 tons and the possibility to transport 4 rocks of that type and it’s still one of the best floating means of its kind.

The section of the breakwater, apart from the good construction of the above mentioned structures, proved to be inadequate from the hydraulic point of view because of the dimensions of the surrounding sea bottoms and the height of the structure; after the storms of 1955, it was strengthened by means of an external casting of artificial rocks and the creation of a reef.

Eastern extension of the Galliera pier

Using the same type of structure the extension of the Galliera Pier was completed, stretching for 400 m. to complete the protection of the eastern side of the harbour.

Under-billow piers

Using gigantic rocks the under-billow piers were built, they delimitate the big harbour area, on the eastern side or Cagni Pier, (that needed the removal of the surface layers of the sea bottom and their reconstruction by mans of sand casting) – with a development of.630 m. – and on the Western side, or Polcevera Pier, - with a development of about 800 m.

Docks against  Andrea Doria bridge

To equip the Andrea Doria Bridge of the Old Harbour featuring a reduced sea bottom to receive the big transatlantic liners, some protection walls were built before the W and E sides of the existing structure, partially using pillars put on cassions pushed by means of compressed air up to the level of -13m.

The Lanterna harbour dock

Created together with the first section of the breakwater, Grandi Lavori Fincosit built the whole area including the wharfs Canzio and Bettolo and the bridges Rubattino and San Giorgio, developing  2,7 kilometers of walls on rocks pillars on 12 meters water bottoms.

The sheet of water available for the ships is 74 hectares wide and the yards are taken from the sea for 26 hectares.

Harbour area of Sampierdarena

Five kilometers of docks were built on the bridges: Etiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Libia and Canepa -  400 m long each. – with around 80 hectares of sheets of water and  75 hectares of yards entirely taken from the sea.

The docks’ walls are made of superimposed solid pillars of rocks, plunged at a depth of -12 ÷ -12,70 m., the dock at Canepa Bridge bottom has a depth of more than 13 meters.

SIAC Protection dam of Cornigliano

The protection of the yerds that had to be taken from the sea for the creation of the metallurgic plant of SIAC, now ITALSIDER S.p.A., was built using an original solution considering the low sea bottom.

The structure included a dam, 925 m long, with a vertical wall on a limited sea bottom, around 8 m. made of solid superimposed pillars of rocks  (weighing from 300 tons to 360 tons each., and with the contact surfaces “tooth and counter-tooth” shapes"), a stilling channel and a containing dock of the artificial embankment.

To avoid  the spacing due to the stiff swirling flows, the dam was protected by big reinforced concrete slabs that were linked among one another in order to follow the lowering of the opposite sea bottom.

The dam and the docks resisted to the big storm on February 1955, and where afterwards incorporated in the further development towards the sea of the metallurgic plant  in 1963. 

Clarification tanks of the water softener of the historical centre of Genoa

PURCHASER CARENA S.P.A group

CONSTRUCTION PERIOD 1984-1990

The water softening installation of the of wastewaters of the historical centre of Genoa serves a population of 220.000 inhabitants.

The installation’s four clarification tanks were built by means of 8 reinforced concrete cellular cassions that were plunged on the sea bottom at a depth of -7,00 metres measuring 17,15 x 22,38, and were prefabricated in the shipyard of Ponte Canepa.

A ninth smaller cassion  (17,15 x 10,80 m) was used for the pumps compartment.

CONCRETE 8.381  cubic meters

TOTAL VOLUME OF THE PREFABRICATED CASSIONS 32.327 cubic meters

STEEL USED FOR THE REINFORCED CONCRETE 639.444 tons

Dry dock  5 (Genoa)

PURCHASER INDEPENDENT COOPERATIVE OF THE GENOA HARBOUR

CONSTRCUTION PERIOD 1958-1962 

Since there was a lot of traffic in the area chosen for the construction of the dock and the sea bottom had a poor rocky substratum that wasn’t very suitable for the mooring, a floating structure was studied, built and then plunged and ballasted using the sand on a surface of more than 16.000 square meters.

The bed was made of sea sand and course crushed aggregate prepared either destroying the rock or removing the slime and sand surface and replacing it with concrete.

The huge block (260,5 m. long and 52 m. wide, 140.000 tons that became 220.000 during the sinking phase), was made by soldering through a longitudinal pre-compression, 15 cellular cassions measuring 52 x 17,40 m, prefabricated at the Ponte Canepa shipyard on a specific platform.

The pre-compression, also working on a transversal direction, needed  980 cables.

The chamber is 252 m long, 38 m. wide, the depth of the sea bottom is -10,50 m.

CONCRETE 51.200 cubic meters

STEEL FOR THE REINFORCED CONCRETE 3.190 tons

PRE-COMPRESSION CABLES 700 tons

Dry dock of Genoa

PURCHASER, THE INDEPENDENT COOPERATIVE OF THE GENOA HARBOUR

CONSTRCUTION PERIOD 1980 -1982

The visible wharf for the protection of the floating dry dock of the Genoa harbour is totally made of reinforced concrete cellular cassions.

The 14 cassions, two of which are made of anchoring towers, are plunged on a riprap bed at a changeable depth from -17,50 to-20,00 metres and they have a shaft measuring 21,64 x 17,30 m.

The cassions’ external wall on the sea side has a double row of communication holes with a camping chamber used to reduce the wave disturbance in the sheet of water opposite to the wharf.

The scaffolding is made with connecting prefabricated elements among the different towers and completed on the spot with a reinforced casting. On the wharf’s scaffolding there are the two runways with a 14 m gauge for the movement of two cranes with a capacity of 100 tons at 60 meters and 40 tons at 45 meters.

The wharf is about  380 metres long.

Repairing wharf and preparation of ships up to  250.000 DWT in Genoa

CONTRACTOR: SHIPS  REPAIRING AND PREPARATION OF SHIPS AND UNITED SHIPYARDS

CONSTRUCTION PERIOD 1971 - 1973

The wharf on which two big cranes are moved is made of 10 big reinforced concrete cellular cassions and is laid on a yielding soil of slime and sand origin mixed with clay, on the Western side of the old Pier Giano.

The soil was reclaimed by replacing superficial slime and sand layers with a bed of sand and then pre-charged by filling the cassions’ cells with sand.

After a period of time, the cells were emptied and then the superstructure was built by using prefabricated materials.