Donato Carlea responsible for coordinating CEMEX
17 September 2024
Sogin has appointed Donato Carlea, former Chairman of the Higher Council for Public Works and one of the leading experts in the management of complex contracts, to lead the team of technicians who will support the Company in the construction of the Cemex Complex within the Eurex site in Saluggia (Vercelli).
Mr Carlea will be supported by the best in-house professionals on the issues related to this project. The objective will be to define a strategy that can resolve any aspects that could slow down, hinder or block work beforehand, thus making the process practically irreversible.
Donato Carlea, holds a degree in civil engineering, and has directed the main Public Works Authorities in Italy, was Extraordinary Commissioner for Major Works, Director General of the Inspection Service of the Public Contracts Supervisory Authority and President of the Higher Council for Public Works. He has been a university lecturer at several university faculties, including the Faculty of Engineering in Perugia, and the Faculty of Architecture at the "La Sapienza" University of Rome. His most recent successes include his decisive contribution to the reconstruction of the Genoa bridge (formerly Morandi bridge) in Italy, in record time and based on an innovative approach.
The construction of the Cemex complex has had an extremely complicated history, with numerous attempts at start-ups and subsequent stops, over the course of the twenty-five years of Sogin’s existence. Entrusted in 2010 to Ansaldo Nucleare and blocked in 2011 on the basis of direct non-judicial executive action, the construction was reassigned in 2013 to a Temporary Grouping of Companies, with parent company Saipem, and interrupted in 2017, after four years, having progressed at a rate of less than 10%. In December 2020, it was then assigned to another Temporary Grouping of Companies, with parent company Theorema Scarl, but was terminated 24 months later after very little physical progress was made in respect of the estimated time (just over 1% compared to the estimated progress of over 50%). Finally, a call for tenders, launched on 5 April 2023, was cancelled on the basis of direct non-judicial executive action on 31 January by current management, due to obvious substantial defects that would have blocked the completion of the structure during the execution phase.
The CEMEX Complex coming into operation by 2029, as required by the Decree of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, is one of the strategic steps in the decommissioning and safety programme for the Eurex facility in Saluggia, which will allow for the cementation of the liquid waste stored at the site. The tender for its construction will be launched within the next year, concurrently with equally complex industrial activities such as the dismantling of the nuclear power plant reactors, which will allow for the decommissioning of Italian nuclear power plants to be completed.
“In Professor Carlea, we have found someone that fully shares our strategic vision and methods in dealing with this complex project" - said Sogin CEO Gian Luca Artizzu – “the Professor’s notable experience, authority and prestige will provide that additional ingredient giving the project and all of us that qualitative leap".