The project Adriatic Gateway has been awarded to the Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport within the TEN-T 2011 program and entrusted RAM as project executor. The overall objective of the Action is to develop the cluster of North Adriatic ports (Ravenna, Trieste, Venice, Koper, Ancona e Monfalcone) into a multi-port Gateway capable of providing an efficient system, competitive services and improved cargo interoperability and thereby attract increased cargo flows.

The Adriatic Gateway has a strategic role for the Adriatic Sea. Currently, only 1.5% of freight container flows enter Europe through North Adriatic ports; even a small growth of this percentage could bring significant benefits: balanced freight flows going North-South, reduction of land transport distances and road congestion and bottlenecks, less air pollution and safer transport operations.

The Adriatic Gateway consists of studies focused on the development of a multimodal and multi-port gateway, connecting the Adriatic corridor to EU logistic platforms as well as supporting the development of strategic links by sea in Mediterranean and Black Sea areas, based in particular on MoS developments.

In particular, the project contributed to:

1. Identify the scenario of interest to define optimal models for multimodal transport and logistic services, in order to develop the Adriatic Gateway Concept Design, formulating a short-medium period forecast frame (Traffic and Marketing study);
2. Identify the global benchmark models to implement a competitive Adriatic Gateway Multiport concerning: port and logistic assets, cargo handling and transfer systems, port services, intermodal transport and logistics, organization models, environmental sustainability and the different normative and legislative aspects (Definition of benchmark model Gateway);
3. Develop the Adriatic Gateway Concept Design by matching the different benchmark models identified and integrating the Gateway within the European port-maritime and logistics network scenarios (Adriatic Gateway Concept Design);
4. Lay out policy suggestions to develop and verify the feasibility of the Adriatic Gateway, testing the congruence of the governance model included in the Concept Design within the normative-legislative context, and to be intended as the project Action Plan.