Salò Opens Bids for New City Center Port and Square Renovation
Offers regarding the tender for the construction of the port at Canottieri and the rearrangement of the square behind the hospital must be received by 12:00 PM on November 22nd (at the town hall, in Salò). The competition will be conducted through an open bidding procedure. The contract will be awarded to the company willing to execute the works at the lowest price compared to the base amount of 2 billion 143 million lire. A guarantee deposit of 2 percent is required. The execution period is 424 days. The tender notice is published on the website www.comune.salo.bs.it. The graphic plans, the specifications, and all documents constituting the executive project are available at the Technical Office, from Monday to Friday, between 9 and 11 a.m. On November 23rd, a session will be held to open the received bids and verify their compliance. If at least five valid bids are received, offers presenting a reduction equal to or greater than the arithmetic mean of the percentage discounts, excluding the top 10 percent and the lowest 10 percent, will be considered irregular (and therefore discarded). Final award depends on the approval of a loan from Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. The responsible official is surveyor Giovanni Ciato. But what will the port look like? It will have eighty-five berths, including twenty for vessels up to 8.5 meters, fifty-five up to ten meters, and ten vessels up to twelve meters. An additional twenty to thirty spaces will be available in the square.
Project and Structure of the Port
“For the floating breakwater,” explains Bruno Marelli, majority councilor and representative of Canottieri, “an innovative but well-tested technology has been chosen. A series of reinforced concrete caissons, seven meters wide, assembled through post-compression, will float, forming a single body, submerged two-thirds in water. Anchoring is guaranteed by two restraint points at the extremities: one towards land, achieved through a vertical steel pole, acting as a hinge; the other at the head, with a steel tube about one meter in diameter, fixed to the caisson with chains and anchored to the seabed with a central port structure. This system,” Marelli underlines, “will enable the breakwater to follow the fluctuations in lake level, ensuring high structural resistance to the stresses produced by wave motion.” The iron and wood pier will be demolished to make room for four new ones, equipped with water and electricity columns. Spaces for temporary parking are also planned. Some of the cabins built after World War II will be immediately demolished to connect Canottieri with the magnolia garden behind the Palazzo delle Entrate (Tax Office). However, locker rooms and related facilities for boaters will be constructed. The current facilities will remain available for athletes and course participants while awaiting renovation.
Architectural Design and Collaborations
The detailed plan was drafted by architect Carlo Perini, taking into account suggestions from Cesare Pellegrini, a professor at Politecnico di Milano. With the arrival of the new Urban Planning assessor, lawyer Barbara Botti, the executive project was worked on by Anna Gatti (Head of the Technical Office), Barbara Ghizzi, Stefano Bordoli, and Bruno Tonelli, the latter two from Studio Udarch. The Canottieri has engaged engineers Alvaro Savoldi and Antonio Pedersini for the project. Notably, significant contributions were also made by surveyor Enrico Corradi, a Mediterranean sailor and a deep expert on the lake. Behind the hospital, a four-to-five-meter wide channel will be excavated, allowing vessel transits and highlighting the old bastions. Cars must clear the area, which will be used as a parking lot. Pedestrians, after walking along the waterfront and past the rest home garden, will be able to follow the channel, enter Canottieri, continue along a footbridge, and reach the Sirena pier or the Ebranati garden. From there, they can access the Martiri della Libertà parking, known for its Saturday market. Proper landscaping will be carried out. Canottieri will lease the boat slips to private individuals, earning the one billion lire owed to it (the other two billion, as mentioned, are funded by the municipality). The project will have considerable strategic value: unlike other locations where the port is more external, in Salò it will be created right in the city center. There is also the possibility of changing the use of the post office or the apartments in the building above: a simple agreement, to be appended to the concession, will suffice.
