To protect this cultural gem from submersion, a technically extremely sophisticated project by the name of ?MOSE? is being realized with ThyssenKrupp GfT Bautechnik?s major involvement. By 2011, three gigantic gates will be constructed to secure the entrances to the lagoon and protect the city during spring tides. So that ships can still pass when the flood gates are in place, ThyssenKrupp GfT Bautechnik is supplying 15,500 metric tons of materials for a new lock at the bocca di Malamocco entrance.

Managing Director Tilo Quink: ?For the construction of the new lock we are providing planning support, sheet piling, machines, pipes and anchors as well as being responsible for downstream processing and logistics. The pipes alone have a diameter of about one and a half meters, a length of 37 meters and a weight of 32 metric tons each. The steel required for the pipes, incidentally, comes from ThyssenKrupp Steel. We are thus continuing our successful activities on the Italian market.?

Business in Italy is currently going very well for ThyssenKrupp GfT Bautechnik ? above all in Venice. Through its partner company Masider in Milan, orders have risen sharply over the last 25 years. ThyssenKrupp GfT Bautechnik is benefiting particularly from the ?sheet piling boom? initiated in 1993 by its own demonstration project on the island of Tresse. At the time, the trade world looked on in awe when an open landfill on Tresse was completely isolated with 3,400 tons of materials ? using the patented Hoesch sealing system for the first time.

Since then the company has provided many canals with sheet piling, e.g. the Canale Industriale Sud with a total of 10,000 tons of materials. 12,000 tons of sheet piling for the Canale Industriale Brentella are currently being called off as and when required.