On highly competitive international tender Brodosplit JSC won project for the construction of 63 steel floodgates for the inlets Malamocco, Chioggia and Lido-San Nicolo which are lagoon inlets leading to Venice, to stop the influence of the tide on the City of Venice.
Brodosplit has delivered 63 flood gates with dimensions 27-30 x 20 meters, 4-5 meters height, and 320-380 tons of weight, that consist of 20,000 tons of built-in steel and with a total value of over 75 million €, including corrosion protection, final outfitting, and transport to Venice.
The project of saving Venice from sinking is called MOSE (Italian abbreviation of Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico) and is an integrated protection system consisting of mobile floodgates capable of separating the Venetian Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea in cases of tide higher than the established level (110 cm) up to do maximum od 194 cm. When they are filled with water, they will lie down at the sea bottom, and when they are filled with air, they will be lifted to the sea surface and used for closing the entrances to the Lagoon.
Interventions for the construction of the MOSE barriers are carried out by the “Ministero delle Infrastrutture e Trasporti - Provveditorato Interregionale per le Opere Pubbliche di Veneto - Trentino Alto Adige - Friuli Venezia Giulia già Magistrato alle Acque di Venezia“ through the Consorzio Venezia Nuova.
Brodosplit workers are extremely proud of this project given that it was won in the Internation tender among very strong competitors – shipbuilders and steel construction manufacturers. It will remain permanently listed as one of the companies that participated in one of the biggest construction projects in Italian history that have contributed to the rescue of Venice from the major problems caused by the tide.
The specificity of the project is extremely extensive documentation, 100% traceability of materials, client's right to additional quality testing in an independent laboratory of his choice, one hundred percent testing of welds with NDT methods, 10 year paint warranty for RI1 according to ISO standard 4628/3 and obligation to transport finished product to the installation site.
Such a big project was the chance to engage institutions and other Croatian companies such as the Faculty of Naval Architecture and Mechanical Engineering in Zagreb where the quality tests were conducted and/or Gumiimpex from Varaždin, which fabricated demanding elements- rubber fenders that during lowering the gates on the seafloor accept their entire weight and by absorbing energy return them to the horizontal position.