Traffic management plan of a new container terminal in Vado Ligure: road design, handling and safety

The Terminal Container in Vado Ligure will become the first semi-automated port in Italy with a fully-automated gate and stacking yard. The 700m deep-sea berth at Vado Gateway will be capable of handling the latest Ultra Large Container Vessels (ULCVs) and 860000 TEUs per year. In order to have a clear understanding on the reasons that lead to perform a study and make this M.Sc. thesis more complete for a reader, a general overview of Vado Gateway is provided at first, thereafter focusing on the new Terminal Container’s facilities and equipment. After a general overview, a study of the internal road design is performed, taking into account issues related to estimated queues and accidents inside the container terminal. Starting by maneuvers’ simulations and considering the geometries characterizing the terminal, a functional subdivision of the spaces is determined; this lays the foundation for the Traffic Management Plan. The main purpose of Traffic Management Plan is to manage traffic inside the APMT Vado Ligure (Terminal Container) in a safe and efficient way for internal and external users. Following this analysis, indications for terminal operators are included and described in this thesis. In order to establish organized traffic patterns, horizontal and vertical signs have been being considered as one of the main topics of this thesis. These are based on risk analysis, terminal benchmarks and operational requirements for internal and external users. With reference to the previous topics, a risk assessment analysis is carried out, pointing out how the main safety issues, resulting by a lack of traffic management plan, can be handled in a safer way by designing the internal roads besides by setting rules and operational processes.