With ruling number 10297/2025 of 27 November 2025, published on 24 December, the Italian Council of State dismissed the appeal filed by the Fincosit-Suardi-Cmci consortium, fully confirming the legitimacy of the tender for the construction of the new Ravano quay at the port of La Spezia. The decision definitively closes the administrative dispute and removes the last legal obstacle to the start of works, scheduled for early 2026, on a project worth more than €90 million and included in a broader investment programme approaching €700 million for the La Spezia port system.
The judges of Palazzo Spada upheld ruling number 982/2025 of the Liguria Regional Administrative Court, rejecting all the objections raised by the appellant and recognising the correctness of the legal and technical approach adopted by La Spezia Container Terminal, particularly with regard to the tender clauses and the economic and financial requirements imposed on bidders. The award of the works to the consortium formed by Icop, Dott. Carlo Agnese Costruzioni and Vianini Lavori is therefore now definitively consolidated.
The Ravano quay expansion project has its roots in the procedural agreement signed in July 2021 between the Port System Authority and La Spezia Container Terminal, later supplemented by the deed of submission signed in December 2023. Through these acts, the timeline of interventions envisaged under the 2016 concession was redefined, bringing forward the construction of the new Ravano terminal compared with other works, also in view of the gradual return of the Calata Paita areas to the city. LSCT’s direct investment for the terminal expansion amounts to €232 million, within an overall framework that includes public and private works financed in part through the PNRR.
The tender for the first lot of works was published in June 2024, with a base amount of €90.0 million. The project includes land reclamation of the Canaletto marina basin, the construction of a new quay approximately 524 metres long, the structural completion of the quay at the root of the eastern Fornelli pier and the connection with Calata Ravano. It also provides for five ship-to-shore cranes capable of operating across 25 container rows, preparation for quay electrification and a new operational yard equipped with semi-automatic electric equipment.
The tender procedure was marked by a complex review phase, involving exclusions, conditional readmissions and subsequent rulings by the Liguria Regional Administrative Court, which between September and December 2024 annulled the exclusion measures adopted by the contracting authority. The final award, made on 21 February 2025, was challenged by the second-ranked consortium, which in particular contested the possession of qualification requirements in category OG7 by Carlo Agnese. Both the Regional Administrative Court and the Council of State deemed these objections unfounded, judging the admission of the winning consortium to be legitimate.
The new Ravano quay represents a central step in the terminal’s development strategy, managed by a joint venture involving Contship Italia and MSC. Overall handling capacity is set to grow from the current 1.4 million TEU to around 2 million TEU, with an initial increase estimated at 300,000 TEU already in the early phase of the expansion. At the same time, LSCT aims to raise the share of rail traffic to 50% by 2026, from a level already above 35%, a figure that places the La Spezia port among the national leaders in intermodality.
The infrastructure will be integrated with the new Spezia Marittima rail yard, currently under construction by the Port System Authority, and with dredging works to a depth of minus 15 metres, required to allow access for the latest-generation container ships. The works will have to be carried out while ensuring the continuity of terminal operations, with progressive handover of completed sections, a factor that significantly increases the execution complexity of the construction site.
Mara Gambetta
