Palermo Port: 15000 DWT Dry Dock

Palermo, Italy

At the end of the 80s Palermo Port Authority started works to construct the 150.000 DWT Dry Dock, within Palermo Industrial Port.

Works were stopped due to a dispute arisen with the Subcontactor. Up to now the following works – which are included in the original project – were carried out.

• Construction of the foundation bench after remediation with removal and replacement of recent seabed deposits;

• Installation of cellular caissons with the exception of the basic gate-caisson;

• Construction of the diaphragm wall on the caissons’ external perimeter to extend the seepage paths during the construction phases up to realization of the foundation slab;

• Completion of grouting to improve imperviousness of the diaphragm wall single panels’ joints;

• Installation of the foundation piles of the dock’s slab, with insertion of tie rods to be stressed later on.

At the beginning of the 2000s Palermo Port Authority, after terminating the Contract, started to plan the completion works. In order to assess the state of works already carried out, it was necessary to perform consolidation and static safety works before emptying the dock basin.

Works specified in the Contract included dredging of approximately 76.000 m3 of sediments and waste, for a total of about 117.000 tons of mainly sandy material, contaminated by hydrocarbons C>12, heavy metals and mixed waste, mostly conveyed by 2 sewage pipes (about 500.000 AE) which, until 2014, would discharge next to the Dock. 

Trevi Spa, after being awarded the Contract, drew up the executive design required to perform works, proposing a washing treatment of the waste to be dredged known as Sediment Washing.