New boarding tower in Venice

With this tower, the Venice Port Authority wants to improve the management of passengers’ flows, to decrease the ship dwelling time in the port and to reduce the energy consumption related to port activities.

The MBT is a facility designed for home port ships docked at the terminal as well as for visiting ships, whose passengers descend directly to the dock. Port operators and crew have a fast and direct means of transferring from the ship to the dock, without involving the terminal and its safety systems. The tower facilitates the embarkment and disembarkment of passengers, especially those with reduced mobility, using elevators to link the dock with the terminal and vessel, regardless of the height of the boarding ramp, thereby giving a number of alternative and safer routes to passengers, dock operators and crew.

The MBT project originates from an analysis of the functional deficiencies of current boarding gangways in relation to the ever-greater dimensions and passenger capacity of the new cruise ships. ‘Multipurpose’ refers to the possibility of creating multiple routes, while keeping logistic flow separated, and supplying the port with more services than those currently available. The tower was conceived as a modular system and by adding some modules the solution can work as a little terminal. The internal area can be dedicated to host a security check-point giving direct access to the ship from the dock without passing through the terminal.

Source: Port of Venice