Italy government donates to Venice flooding project

ROME -- Italy's government gave the go-ahead Friday to the first chunk of money for an ambitious plan to save waterlogged Venice, authorizing some $450 million to build hinged barriers that will rise up in the sea to block the tides.

The "Moses Project" -- named after the Biblical figure who parted the Red Sea -- should receive the money over three years, the Interministerial Committee for Economic Programming said Friday. The go-ahead came more than a year after the plan was first approved.

The entire project is expected to take about a decade and cost some $3.5 billion. The hinged barriers would be erected in the Adriatic seabed near the entrance to the Venetian lagoon, and would be raised when high tides threaten the city.

Venice is frequently bedeviled by high water that floods into famed St. Mark's Square, prompting officials to set up raised plank walkways.