The management committee of Port System Authority of the Sardinian Sea (ADSP) recently adopted a technical-functional amendment (ATF) to the dredging master plan of the Port of Olbia in Sardinia.
The amendment defines the eventual use of two reclamation basins proposed for the northern shore of the port. The change allows the stalled Olbia dredging project to be resubmitted for environmental impact assessment under the amended planning provisions.
The basins are planned in the waters in front of the former Palmera factory. Once filled, the reclaimed areas are intended to connect with the existing boatbuilding areas immediately behind them.
According to the ADSP, the amendment, "filled a gap that the 2022 ATF did not explicitly address and that Tar Sardegna, in its judgment last March, had identified among the decisive points for the project's approval process."
In that March ruling, the Sardinian regional administrative court rejected the authority's challenge to a negative environmental decision on the northern basins.
The court found that the project had presented only the ex-Palmera location, which prevented a full assessment of reasonable alternatives, including not proceeding with the works.
It also required the project's wider purpose and socioeconomic benefits to be substantiated against its environmental and landscape costs.
The disputed decision was set out in an environmental compatibility decree of June 16, 2025. It approved, subject to conditions, dredging at Isola Bianca and Cocciani to 10 metres below sea level, deepening of the access channel to 11 metres, and consolidation of Isola Bianca's quays.
The northern basins received a negative judgment.
The Italian Ministry of Culture had objected that the basins would add approximately five hectares of quay frontage along one of the last stretches of natural shoreline on an otherwise extensively quayed waterfront. Its conditions required material destined for the basins to go to an authorised landfill or be disposed of at sea, and required removal of dangerous ex-Palmera pier structures and restoration of the shoreline.
ADSP President Domenico Bagalà said the amendment was aimed at, "giving a definite purpose to a disused area and strengthening an already established boatbuilding hub, through a process that will be conducted with full respect for the landscape."
At the same meeting, the committee approved an updated 2026–2028 public works programme, which lists the first lot of the Olbia dredging among its principal works.
