Italy needs 247 works which cost 200 billion euros, 52% of which (104,5 billion euro) already financed with resources provided by the PNRR, community funds and private investments. Some interventions are entrusted to the Extraordinary Government Commissioners who, on the model of the Genoa Bridge, will have to supervise its construction and speed up the process. These are just some of the summary elements of the articulated work carried out over the course of 15 months by Uniontransport which, with the assistance of the Chambers of Commerce and of Unioncamere, has produced 19 regional White Papers which describe the territorial contexts, the strengths and weaknesses of the infrastructures at the local level, the needs and priorities of the production system.
Priest (Unioncamere): "In 2023 the National White Paper on infrastructure"
“90% of passenger traffic in Italy takes place on the road while only 6% of passengers travel on the railways, a lower share than in Europe (7,9%) – underlined the president of Unioncamere, Andrew Priest -. The consequence, as highlighted by the PNRR, is that the transport sector is among those most responsible for climate-changing emissions, with a contribution equal to 23,3% of total greenhouse gas emissions".
“The system of the Chambers of Commerce – added the president – wants to strengthen its role as protagonist of the confrontation, providing a contribution for a new national strategy for the development of modern, sustainable and safe infrastructures and efficient and competitive logistics. A contribution that will be able to favor and support the implementation of the numerous actions, of the important investments and of the desired reforms envisaged in the PNRR. For this reason, in 2023 we will prepare and disseminate a national White Paper on infrastructure".
The infrastructure map in Italy
Overall, the interventions reported by the territories are 516. Of these, 247 are identified as "priority level 1". Of these, 39% concern the regions of the South, 21% those of the North East, 21% those of the Center and 19% those of the North West. The road system is the most involved: 44% of the priorities concern this transit route, 33% concern the railway system, 6% the port system, 6% the interport system and 5% the airport system. The remaining 6% is related to the waterway system, cycle paths and governance. The interventions relating to the road and railway system absorb more than 90% of the total economic value, while the nodes (ports, freight villages and airports) stop at 11,5 billion euros (5%).
The most expensive works: over 90 billion for the South alone
The value of priority interventions to relaunch the Noon exceeds 90 billion euros, of which 57 dedicated to the railway system.
The top 10 most expensive interventions absorb 40% of the total value of over 200 billion euros. And they are: theSalerno-Reggio Calabria high-speed train, completion and securing of the A2 Mediterranean motorway, the modernization of Jonica state road, all interventions particularly requested by the Calabrian companies; there Adriatic railway line, indicated by companies in the Marche region; the infrastructural upgrading and the doubling of the Pescara-Rome line, reported by entrepreneurs from Abruzzo; the realization ofHigh Speed/High Capacity Naples-Bari, indicated by companies from Campania; the new link AV/AC Palermo Catania and the completion of the doubling of the railway line Palermo-Messina, particularly dear to Sicilian businesses; there Genoa eaves and the realization of the brace Carcare-Predosa, in which Ligurian companies are very interested.
The transport networks
Looking to road network, the best performances are those of the North West and North East and of the coastal area that goes from Rome to Salerno. The first 10 positions in the ranking include territories with a high consistency of road network and above all of the motorway category. In the first places, therefore, Milan, Rome, Naples, Verona and Bologna.
Even for the Rail system the top 10 positions in the ranking reward above all the northern areas, North West and North East, and territories that have a high consistency of electrified railway network. The less performing provinces are almost all characterized by the total absence or scarce significance of high quality railway services which, in some cases, are also associated with a modest level of infrastructure (this is the case, for example, of Sardinia, where the whole region does not have an electrified network, but also territories such as Aosta, Biella, Belluno, Crotone, Ragusa and Trapani).
As regards the ports, only 12 out of 105 territories have a high level of infrastructure: Livorno, Genoa, Trieste, Naples, La Spezia, Messina, Massa Carrara, Savona, Salerno, Pisa, Lucca and Gorizia, with a prevalence, therefore, of the provinces of the Centre- North, in particular of Liguria and Tuscany, but also of the North East, with the excellence of the Trieste area. In the South, the territories of Naples (fourth position), Salerno (ninth position) and Messina (sixth) emerge.
Le airport infrastructure, just like the port and logistics ones, do not exhaust the potential demand within the province in which they are physically located, but – if well connected – extend their influence to neighboring territories as well. One can therefore understand the presence in the Top 10 of provinces which do not have an airport within their borders, but which are very close to provinces with large airports. Overall, only 30 territories out of 105 are observed with a high indicator value. The first ten positions, with the exception of Rome (which is in 1st place) are monopolized by the provinces of the North, in particular in Piedmont and Lombardy. The most penalized provinces, however, are Sondrio, Bolzano, Caltanissetta, Grosseto, Potenza, Agrigento and Campobasso.
With regard to the logistics, overall the analysis shows that only 13 territories out of 105 boast a high level of infrastructure. The top ten positions are monopolized by the provinces of the North East, in particular in Veneto and Emilia-Romagna (where the main logistic nodes are in fact concentrated). In the South, only the provinces of Campania and the Appulo-Lucana area emerge, while Salento, Calabria, Sardinia and Western Sicily have very low logistic infrastructure levels.
