Autobrennero, the concessionaire of the A22 del Brennero motorway, is ready to transform the axis between Modena and Vipiteno (Bolzano) into the first green corridor in Europe, with an investment plan of 7.2 billion, entirely self-financed, as soon as the Ministry of Infrastructure will have solved the knot of the concession. At the moment, the company is waiting for the ministry to communicate whether the public utility requirement exists for the project finance proposal, presented by Autobrennero on 11 May 2022 and aimed at obtaining the renewal of the concession. The ministry’s response is expected by Christmas. If the green light arrives, immediately afterwards the tender procedure will open for the assignment of the concession on which Autobrennero, as proposer, will have the right of first refusal. And the great investment machine will be able to get going. A volume of resources that multiplies by more than three times, at current values, what was put in place for the construction of the motorway itself (years 60-70).
From road to rail
The maxi plan defined by Autobrennero, controlled with 84.7% of the shares by the public bodies of the territories crossed by the A22, moves in three directions: intermodality, ecological transition and digitalization, which also define three of the Pnrr’s missions. Moving Tir from highway to rail will reduce emissions and traffic congestion. «Seen from the outside – says Diego Cattoni, managing director of Autostrada del Brennero – the choice to support the rail may seem like an act of competition to ourselves. But in fact this is not the case: the analysis of the macro trend of the freight transport market between now and 2035 tells us that the demand for rail transport along the Brenner axis will be growing strongly, with a share of the railway increasing, from ‘current 30% to about 60% “. A land, the latter, on which the A22 decided to invest already in the nineties. In the Autobrennero group there are two freight railway companies: Rtc-Rail Traction and Lokomotion, which move 12 thousand trains a year. At the end of 2021, Autobrennero decided to purchase InRail. Cattoni says: «With the entry of InRail we have already become the second Italian railway group in the freight sector, but the goal is to grow further».
Distributors for hydrogen
The second direction on which Autobrennero moves is that of ecological transition. “We are convinced – continues the CEO – that it will be innovation and technology that will help us win the challenge of sustainability”. And how is it translated into practical acts? “We must immediately offer a plurality of alternatives to traditional fuels”. Hence the acceleration on the electric front. Already today, 57 charging stations offer a widespread and free service to customers of the A22. Within a few years they will become 100, offering an increasingly powerful and fast recharge. Then there is the hydrogen front, which places Autobrennero at the top of innovation in Italy. Since 2014, the first and still only Italian center for the production and distribution of hydrogen in Italy has been active in Bolzano, thanks to which over three million kilometers have already been traveled emitting only water vapor. A fuel on which road transport will soon be able to focus: the considerable weight required by the batteries makes access to electricity almost prohibitive for this sector. «For the diffusion of hydrogen vehicles – continues Cattoni – the presence of a capillary fuel distribution infrastructure is essential. Our business plan provides for the development of another five new plants »in Brenner, Trento, Rovereto, Verona and Campogalliano. Initially, these will be refueling points, but the business plan already envisages transforming them into as many production centers, which will exploit the most suitable renewable energy for each territory crossed by the A22. If in South Tyrol the company has focused on hydroelectricity, in the Po valley biomass will be exploited, while in the Affi area (Verona) the option identified is that of wind power.
The digital highway
The company’s planned investments in technology also go in the direction of zero emissions. The will is to transform the artery from analog to digital and create the basis for cooperative and autonomous driving. That it is not utopia is shown by the 300 thousand kilometers traveled with the Truck Platooningthat is the convoys of industrial vehicles that provide only one vehicle, the first, with a driver behind the wheel.