In the coming weeks the port authority of Leghorn in Italy is to launch a new international tender for finding operators interested in building and operating the new port expansion called Darsena Europa. The project encompasses a new terminal container and, later on, some berths for roro traffic. The overall investment will be around €800m ($900m), partly financed with public money (€450m) and the rest by private investors (€350m).
A public presentation of the new port infrastructure was conducted yesterday at the European Commission in Brussels by Andrew Penfold, project director of Ocean Shipping Consultants and author of a disputed market research on the potentiality for the port of Leghorn in the present and future market scenario in Southern Europe. The future Darsena Europa container terminal will have 1,100 m of quayside, a 66 ha yard and will be directly linked to the national network through a rail shuffle with 750 m long tracks. The projected depth is 16 m but a further step of dredging works is expected in order to accommodate the latest generation of ultra large containerships.
