Portuguese 
English 
Spanish 
6 min of reading 
0 comments 
Mega concrete caissons advance in the Ligurian Sea in a project that combines offshore engineering, heavy logistics, and port adaptation. In Genoa, the new maritime barrier prepares the terminal for increasingly larger ships and strengthens the competition for strategic trade routes.
In northern Italy, the construction of the new Genoa Breakwater progresses as one of the largest maritime interventions underway in the Mediterranean, with approximately 6 kilometers in length designed to protect and expand port operations.
Installed in the Ligurian Sea, the structure uses large reinforced concrete cellular caissons placed on seabeds up to 50 meters deep, in an operation that combines offshore engineering, naval logistics, and highly complex underwater works.
Responsible for the execution, the PerGenova Breakwater consortium, led by Webuild, works on behalf of the Western Ligurian Sea Port System Authority under a contract announced in 2022 with a base value of 928 million euros.
-
A small Brazilian city could become the ‘home of Amazon’ with a billion-dollar project of R$ 1 billion that plans a cargo airport, integration with ports, highways, and a future railway to transform Guarapari into a new strategic logistics hub in the Southeast of Brazil.
-
The best city to live in Brazil has only 4,700 inhabitants, is located in the interior of São Paulo, and leads the ranking for the third consecutive year, driven by quality of life, sanitation, security, and revenue linked to the Embraer factory.
-
VIDEO: China inaugurates the world’s largest escalator, nearly 1 km long, equivalent to 80 floors in a mountainous region, with 21 interconnected escalators, eight elevators, and a 21-minute journey that replaces over an hour of walking.
-
Snow in Santa Catarina attracts tourists to Urupema, Urubici, and São Joaquim, but each city offers different chances to see the phenomenon, with intense cold, frost, landscapes of the Serra Catarinense, and itineraries ranging from frozen waterfalls to high-altitude wineries.
Converted approximately, this amount is close to the R$ 5.3 billion mentioned in the title and helps to gauge the scale of a project designed to reposition Genoa in the competition among major European ports.
New maritime barrier expands the capacity of the port of Genoa
More than containing waves and reducing the sea’s impact on the port area, the new barrier was planned to reposition the port’s external protection and free up larger spaces for access, navigation, and maneuvering.
With the new configuration, the project envisions an entry channel over 300 meters wide and an evolution basin 800 meters in diameter, dimensions necessary for next-generation commercial vessels.
With this expansion, Genoa will be able to more safely accommodate ships 400 to 450 meters in length, a category that requires greater depth, a wider turning radius, and approach corridors compatible with modern operations.
This change responds to the continuous growth of container ships, which in recent decades have become larger, heavier, and more dependent on port infrastructure capable of absorbing high volumes without compromising safety or operational efficiency.
Although Genoa maintains a relevant position on the routes between the Mediterranean, northern Italy, and the rest of Europe, this geographical advantage depends on maritime access compatible with the scale of current ships.
Cellular caissons support the new Foranea Dam
At the center of the work are the so-called cassoni cellulari, reinforced concrete structures internally divided into cavities that function as large floating modules before being laid on the seabed.
After positioning on the submerged base, these cells receive rocky material to increase weight, stability, and resistance, transforming each module into a permanent part of the new maritime protection line of the port.
The largest caissons reach 33 meters in height, 30 meters in width, and more than 67 meters in length, proportions comparable to a ten or eleven-story building installed under the sea.
For the first 4.8 kilometers of the structure, more than 70 cellular caissons are planned, manufactured in successive stages and taken to the definitive area by tugboats after the concrete has cured.
During production, floating platforms installed in the maritime environment allow the molding of the pieces with metal forms, steel frames, and successive concreting, reducing logistical displacements and bringing the construction site closer to the installation area.
When the module reaches the required conditions, the structure is towed to the defined point, submerged in a controlled manner with seawater, and filled with stone material after settlement.
Seabed was reinforced before the megablocks
Before the caissons were installed, the project’s engineering needed to prepare a stable base in an area of great depth, subject to the constant action of currents, waves, and natural variations of the seabed.
In this stage, about 70,000 gravel columns were planned, with lengths between 6 and 13.5 meters, to consolidate the bottom and create suitable conditions for the weight of the future barrier.
The technique uses vibration equipment operated from floating platforms, forming columns on the submarine bed and increasing the ground’s resistance before placing the reinforced concrete modules.
In addition to this reinforcement, the project foresees 9 million tons of rocky material on the base, including part reused from the old dam, a measure that reduces transport, disposal, and demand for new inputs.
Because of this combination of depth, material volume, and continuous operation at sea, the new Foranea Dam is considered one of the most complex maritime interventions ever carried out in Europe.
With installation in depths reaching 50 meters, the structure is cited in technical documents as a European record for a vertical barrier of this type, due to the depth and construction method adopted.
Work progresses without halting the Italian port
Even with machines, vessels, and divers operating around the port area, the construction proceeds without completely interrupting the operation of Genoa, a condition that makes daily planning even more demanding.
On April 28, 2026, the project reached the 20th caisson installed, surpassing 880 meters of executed extension and reaching about 900 meters of total constructed length.
In the same phase, the site accumulated over 500 days of underwater interventions at great depths, resulting from a sequence of operations conditioned by weather, tide, wind, and availability of safe windows.
The operation mobilized more than 60 naval means, including support vessels, tugboats, and specialized equipment, coordinated to reduce risks to the personnel involved and avoid critical interferences in port activities.
According to the official schedule, the first phase is expected to end in 2027, including the new eastern access and the expansion of maneuvering areas planned to accommodate larger vessels.
Subsequently, the second phase, scheduled for 2030, is expected to complete the structure and allow the dismantling of the old barrier, a necessary step to consolidate the new maritime design of the port.
Special concrete and monitoring accompany the structure
As the marine environment accelerates the degradation of materials exposed to chlorides, humidity, salinity, and chemical variations, the cellular caissons use special concrete formulated to reduce water penetration.
This care aims to extend the durability of the structures over decades of operation, protecting internal reinforcements and preserving the strength of the modules in an area subject to constant stress.
Besides concrete, the project incorporates structural monitoring systems during execution and after completion, with instruments capable of tracking displacements, settlements, and geotechnical behavior of the seabed.
In April 2026, part of these sensors was already transmitting topographic and geotechnical data used by technical teams to assess the project’s response as new caissons were installed.
In the environmental field, the consortium reports adopting protocols aimed at protecting marine fauna, with support from the Genoa Aquarium since March 2024 in ecological monitoring actions.
The initiative includes the temporary removal of organisms from affected seabeds and their subsequent relocation to the same waters, a measure associated with controlling the impacts caused by underwater interventions.
During movements related to the transport of the caissons, 43 sightings of cetaceans and local fauna were recorded, according to project reports, which also foresee the almost complete reuse of materials from the old barrier.
Railway integration defines the logistical reach
Although the new Diga Foranea is presented as a centerpiece to reinforce Genoa as a logistics hub in the Mediterranean, the final impact will depend on the connection between the maritime front and the land networks.
The expansion of access for large ships reduces limitations at sea, but the gain in competitiveness is only complete with railways, highways, and inland terminals capable of quickly dispatching cargo.
Within this strategy, the project is articulated with the Terzo Valico dei Giovi and the Genoa Junction, railway works associated with the transport of goods between the port and northern Italy.
Without this integration, the maritime barrier may alleviate access and maneuvering bottlenecks, but it does not alone eliminate the logistical challenges of a chain increasingly pressured by scale, deadlines, and operational costs.
In practice, the mega concrete caissons do not just represent a defense against the sea, but an attempt to redesign the operation of a historic port in the face of the new dimension of global maritime trade.
Be the first to react!