Venice could be saved by stilts

Rome: Venice's sinking buildings could be saved by raising them on hydraulic stilts. The system, called Project Rialto, has won favour from mayor Massimo Cacciari and will start to be implemented next year.

Venice is suffering both from subsidence into the lagoon on which it is built and from rising sea levels because of global warming.

Though the government has approved the construction of a £1.5 billion (Dh11 billion) sea barrier, called Mose, many Venetians oppose the project and the work is proceeding slowly. The latest idea would work together with Mose.

Two companies have devised a way of inserting the stilts into the foundations of a palazzo. Once in place, they can lift the entire building by more than a metre.

The stilts raise the building very slowly, to avoid causing cracks in the walls. To raise a building with a floor plan of 10,000 sq feet takes approximately 10 months. Roberto Zago, who is in charge of Project Rialto, admitted that the cost was expensive, at £200 per square foot. However, he said: "The benefit is that you get back the ground floor, which is worth a fortune in Venice."