The highways are the “ queens ” works among the great unfinished ones in Italy, all those infrastructures for which projects have been defined, funds allocated, works started, but which then for one reason or another proceed slowly, yes jam, when they don’t stop completely. Highways, in fact, or expressways, ports, dams, railways, bridges, museums, prisons, markets, stations, courts, former abandoned colonies; the sample is very varied and includes not only the public but also private initiatives. Sometimes companies fail, others run out of funds, often it is the appeals of companies that have lost the tender, when not actual judicial investigations, or violations of environmental regulations.
Perhaps the most famous work on the A12, the Tyrrhenian Highway, which was to connect Genoa with Rome but which has been waiting for decades to be completed. The entire central stretch between Tuscany and Lazio of 180 km is missing, an upgraded Aurelia `with four lanes should be built in its place, but the times are very uncertain. Still in Tuscany the completion of the Fano-Grosseto is expected, perhaps in 2026. The section between Siena and Grosseto and the lots between Siena and the Umbria-Marche border are missing. As a consequence, the works for the E45 highway in the Aretino section were also blocked.
In Lombardy there is the case of the Lombard Pedemontana, the motorway that was to connect Bergamo and Varese along a 98.8 kilometer route, of which approximately 75% in tunnels. Since the laying of the first stone, which took place in 2010, the conclusion has been postponed several times: the completion of the very last section, that from Cassano Magnago to Osio Sotto, scheduled for 2030. With a total cost of 4 billion and 118 million, including the 62 km of related works.
In Piedmont the A33 Asti-Cuneo is in the sights, a story that lasts for 30 years. At the moment it looks like a stump, with a viaduct near Cherasco that ends in the fields, getting lost in thin air. The 9.5 kilometers missing to unite the two provinces have been defined by the President of the Region Alberto Cirio on several occasions as one of the open wounds of the territory. A few days ago, the release of the last phase necessary for the start of the works.
Between Umbria and Marche the case of Perugia-Ancona la expressway contracted by the public company Quadrilatero – controlled by Anas – to three different companies, which one after the other have gone bankrupt, leaving the local suppliers and sub-contractors to try to collect credits, which will be partially remedied by the Save companies fund . Among the other blocked works, in Sardinia there is the case of the former arsenal at La Maddalena. Built to house the G8, which was then diverted to L’Aquila, and then later become a landing place for luxury yachts, the structure has never been used. In the seabed in front of it, the reclamations have never been carried out, now the Region of Sardinia could do them, which has taken charge of the property, which bears an IMU of 1.2 million euros.
In Reggio Calabria lighthouse on the courthouse, contracted work back in 2005 for 50 million and studded with delays and disputes, with the termination of the contract for the initially contractor company and other vicissitudes for the successor one. Then there is an emblematic work among the ghost ones, the dam on the Melito river, in the municipality of Gimigliano (Catanzaro). A work started in the 1980s by the Cassa del Mezzogiorno but then – underlines the secretary of Fillea Cgil Calabria – abandoned due to disputes and bureaucratic disputes. A real waste of over 180 million euros for what could be one of the largest Italian dams. According to the latest estimates, around 550 million euros would be needed to complete it