More than a junction, it could become an inextricable knot: it is the ring road of Bologna, who runs parallel to a section of the A14. On this piece of roadway, just over 13 kilometers long, close to a city that is notoriously the most important road and railway crossroads in the country, the Petronian capital is playing its face, since, after decades of comparisons with Autostrade per l Italy, with institutions and citizens, should start at the beginning of 2023 the construction sites for the expansion of one or two more lanes in each direction of travel of the ring road, while a similar increase will affect the motorway for an estimated duration of three years at least of slowdowns, inconveniences and "men at work". At the same time, in the historic center, work will begin on the first red line of the tram. All this will make it rain on Bologna approx four billion in investments, but for local and national mobility it could prove to be a perfect storm.
Is the alternative to do nothing? Effectively things have been slow for quite a while of time in Bologna. In terms of infrastructure, the city has been in breakdown since the 60s, since that 12 July 1967 when the semi-ring that goes from Casalecchio di Reno to San Lazzaro di Savena and touches other crucial points such as the airport, industrial areas and the fair, began to function. It was an innovative work, with the orange lights that illuminated the road at night even in case of fog. There were critics, but not too convinced, because then Bologna was the best in the class. Afterwards it was more difficult to do something, perhaps because living up to one's image is always a difficult undertaking. The widening of the ring road or coplanar or freeway, if you prefer, is a bit the symbol of this ordeal, it took 20, if not thirty years of discussions to arrive at the project which by now no longer has the skills and which , in a few months, will be evaluated by the facts.
The promise is that the extension works they will be built by trunks and not simultaneously over all 13 kilometres. To minimize traffic disruption, both on the motorway and on the ring road, at least two lanes in each direction should always remain passable.
For and against
“We think it will be a disaster,” he comments Andrea Gnudi, president of the order of Petronian engineers. “An excessively invasive amount of work, which will block traffic in Bologna and beyond for years, a potential damage that will affect everyone. The choices were made without consulting the professional orders that would have made a fundamental contribution".
"I don't want to join the list of those who criticize and I say instead let's do it, otherwise we will always stand still" says the former environment minister of the Renzi government, Gian Luca Galletti, a former political opponent of the left at the time of the Guazzaloca junta.
Even the celebrated collective of writers Wu ming years ago, he dedicated an interesting investigation to the project, retracing Bologna's various attempts to give itself road smoothness. In the first place with "the Civis, an optically guided trolleybus, purchased, never used and finally repudiated because it was unsafe". Then with the high-speed station, where Dario Argento could set one of his films and which, says Wu Ming, "Rfi itself considers the enormous underground spaceship a critical example, because in the face of the huge necessary spaces, the attendance of passengers is very low”. Lastly, with the People Mover, an airport shuttle that uses far too innovative technology and is often stopped in the rain and snow.
On the ring road, there were three hypotheses that almost reached the starting blocks, but between political, civic and municipal vetoes, only one succeeded. Let us briefly recall the Passante Nord, a new route further north, which has clashed above all with the hostility of the Municipalities concerned; the Passante Sud, almost entirely inside the hills, with a cost to be multiplied by seven per kilometer of travel, but which would have been shorter and would have transformed the half ring into a complete ring; finally the Passante di mezzo, which is "almost" the one chosen, an extension to the site, with all the problems of traffic blockage that it entails during the works, but which today has become "green", even a symbol of the ecological transition .
The project includes the widening of the route for a total of 13,2 kilometres, from junction 3 of the green branch to the San Lazzaro barrier, and the addition of a lane both on the ring road and on the motorway (in both directions) for an extension of 6,5 meters on each side. The only exception: the central section between junctions 6 (Castel Maggiore) and 8 (BolognaFiere), where two lanes will be added to the ring road, thus reaching four lanes plus emergency and 10 meters per side of widening. In short, we will go from the current 12 to a total of 16/18 lanes.
A new generation Passante
So here we are at theNew generation passerby”, a version that won Autostrade per l'Italia the highest “Platinum” environmental sustainability award from Envision. We recall that the ring road, in fact, belongs to Aspi and its complete name is “motorway junction 1 (RA 1, according to the Anas numbering), coplanar with the A14, classified as a freeway.
"In fact, in Europe, the Passante is the first infrastructure project in the motorway sector to receive certification - says Roberto Tomasi, CEO of Aspi on the Strade e autostrade website - It is a real urban regeneration plan which will see, among the other, the planting of around 35.000 trees and the creation of cycle paths”. A civic network and local committees such as Aria Pesa are moving against the idea that the intervention is green and pure, according to which trees and bicycles are not enough and putting a fig leaf on the increase in road traffic.
Wu Ming then examines 11 of these leaves one by one and throws them all to the wind, including the installation of 50 MW photovoltaic panels which, however, has its own reason in these times in which people are rapidly trying to find energy alternatives.
According to the mayor Matthew Lepore instead the environmental improvements will be substantial: “All the works we are about to inaugurate – he says in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore – have the objective of reducing emissions: the Passante alone will cut 1.500 tonnes of CO2 a year, with the tram network and the new service metropolitan railway we will reverse the proportion between the use of private cars and public transport”.
Galletti, yes to the Passante, pity about the Metro
"We must proceed - says Galletti, who as minister gave a positive opinion on the environmental impact - because otherwise we will continue to remain paralyzed between discussions and cross vetoes". The same ones who prevented former mayor Giorgio Guazzaloca from making the Metro in the city, the only one who since the post-war period managed to wrest Bologna from the left for a mandate. At the time Galletti was city councilor for the budget and he remembers that project well, because it ran like a train. In fact it was already financed by the State, when an appeal to the Constitutional Court of the Region led by Vasco Errani stopped it forever. “Here – says Galletti – precisely because I am convinced that by losing the subway we have lost a great opportunity, I don't want to join the list of critics, of those who say we don't do anything, because in this way we never do anything. Is this project already old? No, I don't think so, but I think that Bologna needs it and anyone who travels along the ring road during rush hour knows it".
Investments and works
The ambition to make Bologna great has therefore never lost it and everyone, Bolognese and non-Bolognese, will be able to see for themselves, in the coming years, how much this goal is proportionate to its real capabilities. Meanwhile the investments that will arrive in the city in the next 5 years for the works in the program they are really important. The Sun 24 Hours speaks of four billion euros, about. And the subdivision is as follows: over two billion for the by-pass, between the widening of 8 meters by 13 km of the ring road-highway semi-ring around the city (1,5 billion) and the rest for the complementary and adduction works; 770 million for the three tram lines co-financed by the Pnrr (the first on the agenda, the Rossa from Borgo Panigale to Pilastro, alone is worth 509 million and has already been awarded on a provisional basis); 450 million for the upgrade of the metropolitan railway service, to bring the frequency of journeys in the suburbs to 15 minutes, against the current time; 400 million to renew the Tel trolleybuses and convert the entire city bus fleet to electric or hydrogen; almost 14 million for cycle paths (the Biciplan plan), in addition to making bridges and canals safe.
