PSI - Issue 62

Marco Perazzi et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 62 (2024) 225–232 M. Perazzi et al./ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

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2. The italian Port System Authorities The Port System Authority is a non-economic public body of national importance with a special regulation and is endowed with administrative, organisational, regulatory, budgetary and financial autonomy which has the task of coordinating the activity of the ports by projecting its action onto a European size. The Port System Authority is the "director" of the port system and administers the areas where authorized companies manage operations and services for goods and passengers, regulating the carrying out of activities, ensuring compliance with workplace safety and regulating the provision of transport services. To increase port activities, the Port System Authority promotes the port on international markets and enhances synergies with the hinterland logistics systems. It also takes care of the physical and IT integration between the port and the transport network, ensuring efficient road and rail connections, preparing gates to control access to port spaces and making an IT platform available to operators to facilitate the exchange of documents along the supply chain. Combining the guidelines of other public institutions, from the European Union to local authorities, the Port System Authority designs the port master plan, which outlines the strategies and projects to enhance existing resources and develop new works, seeking growth opportunities for the port and the territory, with attention to the needs of the market and respecting the environment. Therefore, it draws up intervention programs to carry out development projects and works to keep the port efficient, putting its own budget resources into play, seeking national and community contributions and encouraging the participation of private capital.

Fig. 1. The new Italian Port System Authorities. Source: https://www.contshipitalia.com/it/node/1056

The institutional tasks of the Port System Authority are entrusted to the General Secretariat composed of a Secretary appointed to the Management Committee and the Technical Operational Secretariat. It is worth highlighting the fact that even with the establishment of the Port System Authorities, the legislator has maintained the Maritime Authority established pursuant to the Navigation Code, with responsibilities defined by the same Code. 3. The port infrastructure system The port represents the interchange node between a maritime transport system and a land transport system and as such cannot be thought of isolated from the context in which it is inserted, but must be included in a broader transport