The tunnel is approximately 3. The tunnel will consist of two separate main tubes , one for each direction, constructed by mechanised excavation. On the western side Lato Ponente , the tunnel is connected to the road system of Lungomare Canepa and, from there, to the Genova Aeroporto A10 motorway exit through the Guido Rossa motorway.
The connection with the Genova Ovest A7 exit is instead guaranteed through the road system of the new San Benigno junction. On the eastern side Lato Levante , the connection to the city road system is on Viale Brigate Partigiane , following the current connection guaranteed by the Sopraelevata Aldo Moro. In the central area of Porto Antico, the new route connects with the Via Madre di Dio roadway through a specific junction. The hypothesis of a road tunnel under the basin of Genoa's Porto Antico came together in and developed over the following five years.
This resulted in a preliminary design developed in and approved by the Higher Council of Public Works in In , the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport included it among the Strategic Infrastructures. In , the project was revived, becoming part of a set of interventions aimed at satisfying the public interest and defined in the Agreement between Autostrade per l'Italia, the Liguria Region, the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority and the Municipality of Genoa signed on 14 October To make the design of the Tunnel consistent with the context, a collaboration with RPBW Renzo Piano Building Workshop was activated, with the aim of seizing an extraordinary opportunity for the city of Genoa, not only in terms of cutting-edge engineering and the strengthening of road connections between the Western and Eastern city, but above all for the possibility of recovering and redeveloping the areas of the city where the Tunnel returns to the surface and becomes part of the urban structure.
The project consists of a road crossing of the inner basin of the port of Genoa through the construction of two tunnels and the relevant connections with the motorway and the city road network westward San Benigno area and eastward of the city centre Viale Brigate Partigiane area.
The project is motivated by the need to improve the efficiency of the fast road link across the city, currently constituted of the Sopraelevata built in the early s, which can no longer meet the traffic needs of the city , resulting from the urbanistic changes that have affected the west, the old port and the city centre, and those being implemented in the east. Each of the two main tunnels will be excavated by mechanised tunnelling , using a Hydroshield type TBM with face pressure.
