Genoa underwater tunnel

Genoa / Italy

The Subport Tunnel project is an extraordinary opportunity for the city of Genoa. Taking advantage of cutting-edge engineering, this new infrastructure will not only strengthen the traffic arteries between the east and west of the city, but also recover and redevelop the areas of the city where the Tunnel resurfaces, making it integral to the newly revitalized urban structure.

The city of Genoa has a complex and extremely distinctive urban and territorial structure. Its topography means that the city develops mainly in the east-west direction, thus engaging in a continuous dialogue with the sea, the coast and the densely wooded mountains behind it.

The northern green areas thus tend to spread down the hillsides and creep into the urban structure, maintaining the presence of tall vegetation even where the urban fabric is densest and most compact.

a map of a harbor with a lot of buildings and trees .

The urban project of the new Subport Tunnel aims to strengthen this image of the city by repairing the heavily anthropized areas with the construction of three new public parks and a network of pedestrian cycle paths capable of enhancing the pre-existing spaces located in the areas where the Tunnel returns to the surface.

Construction of the new Subport Tunnel serves two major objectives: to lighten traffic in the city center while speeding up connections between east and west and to improve the urban environment by cutting the noise and atmospheric pollution currently produced by vehicles travelling along the Aldo Moro Overpass.

The underground route of the new tunnel is about 3.5 km long with three contact points on the surface.

a black and white map of a city with a park in the middle .

a large wind turbine is sitting in the middle of a forest .

a drawing of a lighthouse on top of a hill next to a body of water .

an artist 's impression of a park with a lighthouse in the background

The entrance to the West is located in the Sampierdarena area, between the end of the Lungomare Canepa and the two dockyard entrances of Ponte Etiopia and San Benigno. The area, characterized by the presence of numerous managerial and tertiary buildings, marks the arrival in Genoa from all the cities of the North and West of Italy by the A7 and A10 highways.

The East entrance is located in the Foce district, a consolidated expansion area of Genoa, from which the main urban roads and rail routes branch off through the interchange node of Brignole station.

About two-thirds of the way along its route there is a further entrance point to the Tunnel, through the historic district of Madre di Dio, at the foot of the hill of Carignano and the historic city walls, capable of serving the entire area of the city center and the Old Port.

an artist 's impression of a street with palm trees on both sides

a black and white map of a city with a park in the middle of it .

a drawing of a city with a church in the background .

These projects have different dimensions and urban scales but at the same time they are strategic steps for the city’s development and its sustainable evolution.

Specifically, the project includes three major projects: reuniting the Lanterna, the symbol of the city of Genoa, with the Sampierdarena area through the new Parco della Lanterna, the expansion to the north of the Parco della Foce, making it the largest park in the city, and the recovery of the historic walls of Corso Aurelio Saffi concealed through the years by the construction of a series of superstructures and by laying out a Park of the City Walls.