MOSE PROJECT

We are especially proud of belonging to the small group of companies that have designed and constructed equipment for what is universally acknowledged to be the most important flood defence project ever carried out in Italy, namely the “M.O.S.E.” project. In the reinforcement layout for the seabed about 3,5000 reinforced concrete piles will be positioned at the mouths of Porto Lido and Porto Malamocco. The piles are 500 mm in diameter and 20 metres long. IN.TE.SE. Costruzioni d’acciaio Srl has been involved in this specific project for the partial design and subsequent construction of two hydraulically operated self-propelled loading carriages for moving and vertically positioning reinforcing piles. The two loading carriages are positioned on the two longitudinal sides for the floating pontoon and carry (three piles for each cycle) the reinforced-concrete piles that have already been positioned vertically near the pile driver.

The moving parts consist of sluice gates on the bottom of the mouths of the port. They are defined as being “movable” as under normal tidal conditions they are full of water and remain in the housing structures on the seabed (each gate is hinged on the housing structures).

However, when a high tide of more than 110 metres is expected (punta della Salute tide meter) the gates are emptied of water by compressed air. They thus float up to the surface, rotating around the axis of the hinges. This system can temporarily isolate the lagoon from the sea and stop the flow of the tide. The mouths remain closed only for the duration of the high tide and whilst the gates are being manoeuvred (4.5 hours on average).

The gates are opened according to precise procedures that also take account of possible increases in the water in the lagoon conveyed by the rivers, rain, and local high water caused by wind, and the movement of the water between one gate and another.

The system has been designed to cope with a difference in the level of the sea and the lagoon of up to 2 metres. It will therefore also be effective in the event of a significant rise in sea level over the next century.

Each gate consists of a metal box structure that is held in place by two housing hinges. It is 20 m wide and the height varies (Lido-Treporti: 18.6 m and Malamocco: 29.6 m) as does the width (Lido Treporti: 3.6 metres and Chioggia: 5 metres) according to the depth of the channel at the mouth.

When at rest the gates “disappear” into housing at the bottom of the mouth channels. The housing consists of prefabricated reinforced concrete caissons located inside a recess that do not protrude above the seabed. The recesses also contains accessible tunnels and the systems.