Construction of a confined disposal facility to be used as new container terminal in the port of Naples (Italy)

The design of the new container terminal at the Levante Dock (Port of Naples) is based upon the closure of the dock with land filling of about 1.3 million cube metres of sediment dredged from the whole Port area. Thanks to the low permeability of the boundaries the site was designed to be used also as a confined disposal facility. The port dredged materials in fact are potentially polluted.

The new quay for container ships is to be built by converting an existing quay with the following features:

• 650 m length, 14 m depth which could be increased to 16 m for future needs;
• capacity to host two 6,000 TEU ships at the same time, or one ship of 11,000 TEU
• storage and handling area for containers including backup area of 230,000 m2;
• availability of areas for road and rail connections, port services and workshops for dockers.

The new quay structure consisting of a double wall of steel piles connected with Larssen type joints, with polyurethane waterproof sheathing up to the impermeable tufa layer. Backwards, the boundaries are made by means of cement-bentonite mix diaphragms.

The project comprises the clean-up of bottom sediments (characterization and confinement of hot spot soils to a disposal site), protection of the area by a cut-off wall in order to prevent polluted groundwater to enter in the CDF, re-design of existent structures, dredging and land reclamation activities. 

As far as Environmental Impact Assessment is concerned, noise and air modelling were used to evaluate impacts induced by the construction site. Further to the Environmental Impact Assessment, environmental risk analyses were performed to properly manage polluted material and avoid detrimental effects to environment and human health, due to the vicinity of the port to the city of Naples.

The design of the Terminal has been approved by the Italian Ministry of Infrastructures and Ministry of the Environment. Regarding as far as environmental protection.