BOLZANO. What awaits Bolzano are about ten years of construction sites. The mayor says: «I feel like someone is bandaging their heads. Be careful, it’s like when you renovate a house after 30-40 years of waiting: you have to think about the aftermath.” And Renzo Caramaschi adds: «I won’t see any of the works inaugurated, perhaps I will open the works of some. But if they leave, they are the result of five years of endless negotiations with the Province.”
What awaits the Virgolo instead they are six tunnels. Or rather: seven, because there will be a “mini” one. And they will be the first excavations – already at the end of the year – which will precede the second ones by a few months: the construction site in via Galvani-Einstein. “We’ll start there at the beginning of next summer” he confirms. This issue of the Virgolo has never been fully clarified. Only mentioned. Yesterday, in the Municipality, Caramaschi summoned Ivan Moroder, the municipal engineer, to put everything in black and white. And it is this: the hill will soon receive excavations for the railway tunnel for the doubling of the line and, nearby, for the road tunnel to the south but in the end there will be six tunnels. “It seems to me that the number has gone unnoticed in recent weeks,” the two said. And then, in addition: «In some places, the tunnels under construction will be only eight meters apart». To clarify, here are the two aspects of the next construction sites.
I tunnel
In the end, there will be six that pass through the Virgolo: two on the A22, in both directions, two ordinary roads – the old one now operational and the new one that will flow onto the Embankment – and two railways. «Because almost at the end of their underground journey, they will bifurcate, touching the road one. And this aspect has finally been clarified” said Caramaschi and Moroder. Then a seventh. The reason is that, between the two railways there will be a motorway pylon at a certain point. Which, as it is, will not be able to receive maintenance. It will be implemented through a further mini tunnel that will bypass it.
The times
Once excavation for the RFI tunnel has started, there will be a moment – and this emerged in the most recent meeting between the parties – in which the railways and the Province will work in parallel. That is, the second road tunnel will start while the railway tunnel is still under construction.
«This was necessary because the distance between the two works is truly minimal» was said in the Municipality, by Caramaschi and Moroder, in front of the table on which the projects were spread out. The overall costs are also defined. With the latest calendar. «If we start, as decided, in seven/eight months with the first excavation on Via Galvani – comments Caramaschi – it means that we have managed to start the infrastructure six years after the first agreement with Arno Kompatscher. Then renewed the following year. I would just like to point out – insists the mayor – that nothing had happened in the city for at least thirty years. And above all the Province didn’t move.”
With these dates and figures: early summer 2025 first lot of underpasses via Galvani (30 million), early 2027 second lot via Buozzi-Einstein (28 million). Monte Tondo Tunnel: design awarded (4.5 million) with definition of the three junction routes on the SS12 at the end of this year; contract and works in 2028 (final cost 115 million, all from the Province) and conclusion after six years. Upgrading of via Innsbruck and the via Roma-via Grandi underpass: expropriations next year and works in 2026, with the start of the final ones on the via Pacinotti-Galilei axis in 2029; expense for the underpass, 72 million. Doubling of the Virgolo road tunnel: design tender within this year, contract in 2028, assumed expenditure: 30 million.
«Will there be any disruption to ordinary traffic? Probably yes, but maybe not as serious as some now assume – explains Caramaschi – also considering how the construction sites in via Garibaldi are going. But the question is another: Bolzano had needed to be renovated for more than three decades. Either you do it or you stay still. We decided to do it.”
2024-10-07 02:05:06