Fifty years after its completion, Autostrade per l’Italia (Aspi) is investing 800 million to modernize and regenerate the southern section of the Bologna-Taranto Adriatica motorway (A14) and extend its useful life for another half century. Over 50 tunnels and 113 bridges and viaducts to be adapted to the most recent engineering and regulatory standards. In this phase, in particular, the works are concentrated in the more complex stretch that goes from Porto Sant’Elpidio, in the Marche region, to Vasto, in the final part of Abruzzo: 167 kilometers of asphalt line.
Inauguration in 1973
It was the spring of 1973 when the then President of the Republic, Giovanni Leone, inaugurated the last two sections of the A14: Ancona-breaking latest news and Vasto-Foggia, for a total of 261 kilometers of motorway. With the completion of the Adriatic, the design of the main travel backbones with which our country was equipped, in the wake of the post-war economic boom, ended. The Adriatic backbone, with its 50,196 average daily transits, which even reach peaks of 75,000 in the summer exodus period, remains an essential infrastructure for Italian mobility, but also a complex work, especially in the section which, starting from south of the Marches, it crosses the whole of Abruzzo. A succession, due to the orography of the territory, of tunnels and viaducts, today the subject of an impressive modernization plan implemented by Autostrade per l’Italia, the main motorway operator in the country: about 50% of the network belongs to Aspi national toll road (over 3,000 kilometres).
Gallery plan from 2020
The A14 tunnel plan was launched by Aspi starting from 2020 in two phases. The first, completed in 2021, concerned the renovation and modernization of the technological equipment present in the tunnels. The second phase of the plan, currently underway, is 95% complete. The completion of all activities, Aspi guarantees, is expected by 2023 or in any case well in advance of the times established by the legislation (end of 2025).
In many cases, the complete reconstruction of the tunnel cap is designed and carried out, which also provides for the preparation of a new waterproofing system, which the tunnels in the section were not equipped with before the Aspi interventions, as is typical of all tunnels built before the 1980s. Currently, one of the most impressive interventions is underway in the Colle Marino Nord tunnel, between the junctions of Atri Pineto and Roseto degli Abruzzi (Teramo). To date, 15 tunnels have been modernized on the section of the A14 between Porto Sant’Elpidio and breaking latest news Sud, for a total length of approximately 11 kilometres.
Redevelopment of viaducts
Viaducts chapter. In this phase, the viaducts of the southern section of the A14 are mainly involved in the redevelopment of the lateral safety barriers, which envisage the total replacement of the existing ones with latest generation devices. Particularly significant is the plan that Aspi is carrying out on the Cerrano viaduct (Teramo) where three types of interventions have been started: replacement of the lateral barriers, seismic adaptation and geotechnical consolidation. Years ago, this viaduct was targeted by the Prosecutor of Teramo for an alleged shift of 7 centimeters in the pylons. Aspi immediately clarified «that this data does not refer to the piers, but to the maximum displacement of the ground near pile 1 recorded by the instrumentation over 3 years (2016-2018). Therefore, this value does not refer to the piers of the viaduct, which have never achieved noticeable movements in the period considered”. Today, along the Cerrano viaduct, which has never been closed to traffic, Aspi has planned, in addition to infrastructure consolidation activities, also the installation of a permanent monitoring system and the construction of drainage systems consisting of trenches and wells.