The port system of western Sicily in the third millennium

Great works, projects, even with the involvement of the University of Palermo, small redevelopment interventions and radical innovations. The new port system of western Sicily started under the guidance of Pasqualino Monti, a Neapolitan from Ischia, born in 1974, goes straight ahead. The port system includes the ports of Palermo, Trapani, Termini Imerese and Porto Empedocle. We are going to say goodbye to docks where tourists wait for hydrofoils for the islands in the sun, moving between the Tir waiting to board, goodbye to the old style mooring cleats, goodbye to chaotic disorder, a kind of mess, against efficiency and functionality, decorum and respect for the environment and history. Conceived to be functional, efficient, respectful of the environment, and of the history of places, designed for commercial traffic and for large cruise ships, floating cities of 5 – 6 thousand inhabitants, the port system foresees a series of interventions for over 100 million euros of PON funds, the National Operational Program for the construction of infrastructures.

The projects were presented by Pasqualino Monti, (photo) president of the Port Authority of Western Sicily and of the Undersecretary for Infrastructures Edoardo Rixi.  About the Port of Palermo the major interventions concern the dredging, the redevelopment of the maritime station, the demolition of cranes and silos, the rebuilding of the quay, the removal of old cleats and the placement of new 250-ton cleats. The project provides for the sea to be visible from the city, while creating a security protection to the port area.

A conception of the port which, as undersecretary Rixi said, on the one hand recovers and relaunches the great work done by our ancestors, who have created development and well-being thanks to the sea, seen as a great road, on the other hand it puts into effect all the technical and protection skills of the territory.

The works proceed quickly, because as Monti said, “the laying of the last stone matters most”, meaning  that the works have to start, but they must be completed as well.

The only port of Palermo in 2018 registered almost 580 thousand cruise passengers, (+ 26% compared to 2017). The containers handled compared to 2017 have increased by 22.60% for 14 thousand teu (twenty-foot equivalent unit that is the standard size of the containers corresponding to about 40 cubic meters). Numbers that confirm that the road taken is the right one.

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