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Piazzale Kennedy is now open to the public, the heart of the Piano di Salvaguardia della Balneazione (PSBO), created by Hera and the Municipality of Rimini together with Romagna Acque and Amir, one of the main hydraulic works of recent years in Italy, thanks to total investments for over 150 million euros, and reported by the UN for its importance in safeguarding marine environments.

After months of incessant work on the building site, under the Construction Management of the Hera Group, the area was in fact returned to the city and the first of the two viewpoints was completed. The high lookout (the so-called "torrino") is still not accessible, although partially completed, which will remain fenced for safety reasons until the end of the summer period, also thanks to panels that show the citizens the most important phases of the intervention.

Let us remember that Piazzale Kennedy is a project of great importance, not only from a plant engineering point of view, which the city of Rimini has undertaken. It is in fact the result of an important work of coherence between hydraulic works and urban planning and redevelopment guidelines. A synthesis of planning and architectural and landscape integration of the plant system in the city system.

Piazzale Kennedy is one of the most important construction sites of the PSBO both in terms of impact and complexity: started in 2016, the shipyard sees today completed about 90% of the works. At the end of the summer season the works will resume in the remaining part of the area to reach the final phase of the redevelopment, the most visible and spectacular, with the opening of the lookout above the new hydraulic garrison.

The underground part
The new hydraulic facility provides an important accumulation infrastructure characterized by a total volume of almost 40,000 cubic meters, consisting of a first tank of 14,000 cubic meters of volume, which collects the first rainwater, and a second tank of 25,000 cubic meters with lamination and accumulation function. The first tank came into operation in mid-June, for the benefit of bathing in the Marina Centro area of ​​Rimini. At the end of September, after the summer break, instead the works of the second larger tank will resume, which aims to limit, through a process of rolling the flood, the mixed flows that will eventually be conveyed to the sea. This tank is preparatory to the subsequent outflow lifting, with a pumping capacity of 18,000 liters per second, or to return to treatment at the Santa Giustina purifier. The large pool will come into operation once the sea pipelines have been completed, whose forecast for completion is scheduled for next autumn. In addition to the creation of new storage volumes and related lifting systems, particular attention was paid to the containment of odors. The project, in fact, provides a system based on forced ventilation that will convey the air drawn in from the tanks (both the first rain and the rolling one) to a treatment system that uses a specific activated carbon technology. Furthermore, the importance of the project must also be highlighted from the point of view of hydraulic protection: thanks to the work put in place it will in fact be possible to prevent flooding phenomena such as those already caused in the past by exceptional weather events. Finally, thanks to appropriate screening and storage treatments of the materials deriving from the excavations fielded by Hera, it was possible to recover over 20 thousand cubic meters of excellent quality sand, already used for the nourishment of the Rimini coasts. The operation is fully part of the initiatives aimed at protecting our beaches, because it helps to combat soil erosion, and as a good practice in a circular economy perspective.