Italy's environment ministry has issued a positive environmental assessment for dredging of Venice's Vittorio Emanuele III canal.
The canal would give cruise ships an alternative route to the Marittima terminal.
The decree, dated November 3, was issued jointly with the culture ministry. It includes a positive habitat impact assessment and a landscape authorisation, both subject to environmental conditions.
The canal links the industrial waterways of Porto Marghera with Marittima. Cruise ships would reach the terminal via the Malamocco-Marghera canal rather than the Giudecca canal and San Marco waterways.
A 2021 decree restricted navigation through those waterways, including for ships above 25,000 GT, and medium-sized cruise ships lost access to Marittima as a result.
The project will remove about 1.1 million cubic metres of sediment in two phases.
The first phase is budgeted at €32.7 million (US$36.6 million) and is funded through the cruise commissioner's resources. It will deepen the channel to eight metres below mean sea level for ships of up to approximately 230 metres and 50,000 GT.
Supplementary assessment documentation schedules the works for the July 2027–June 2028 timeframe.
The second phase is unfunded and budgeted at €14.5 million (US$16.2 million). It would deepen the channel to nine metres for ships of up to 265 metres and 74,000 GT, with works scheduled for October 2029–February 2030.
The proponent said that permission for individual ships to transit will depend on gross tonnage, draught, length, wind exposed area, propulsion and prevailing weather and sea conditions.
Transits were modelled at five knots to limit erosion. The environmental commission has asked for a detailed design assessment of whether that speed is operationally feasible by ship class and weather, as the proponent stated that safe navigation can require six knots in some conditions.
In 2021, a €1.7 million (US$1.9 million) accessibility study of the Malamocco-Marghera canal was launched, combining navigation and hydrodynamic simulations with field measurements.