It will take another 5 years to do the Lombard Pedemontana. The new deadline is set for 2026. In the meantime, however, 17 kilometers of road have been lost, section D, the one considered to be the most expendable to date, in exchange for a more sustainable financial plan and speeding up the program. The cancellation of section D, the last piece from Brianza to Bergamo, will save a billion, with a result that the technicians say is not so negative, given that the road will still be able to rejoin the Tangenziale Est of Milan and the A4 motorway. The important thing is to get to the bottom. And ensure section C, those 16 kilometers from Cesano Maderno to Usmate Velate considered indispensable, which will allow decongestion to the north of Milan. To get here, an additional 2 billion will be needed, in addition to the approximately 1.7 billion already spent on the first 20 kilometers of road, from Cassano Magnago (Varese) to the Lomazzo junction.
Objective: Winter Olympics
If there are other resources in the future, the project could be reconsidered, but for now this is what can realistically be done. And already in this way, another ten years of delay have been accumulated compared to the last official time schedule. The Pedemontana in fact had to be ready for the 2015 Expo in Milan, it was among the works connected to the event. Then, year after year, the leaders fell back on an easier goal: the construction of the Lomazzo junction, arguing that at least for the Universal Exposition it was enough.
Loading…
And so today we arrived at the next big event, the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan / Cortina. It is at this date that we look, although the Pedemontana has not been included either in the candidacy dossier or among the essential infrastructural works. However, it is an evocative horizon, to which the current leaders – the president Roberto Castelli and the CEO Giuseppe Sambo, just reconfirmed – try to look.
The new financial plan
The Lombard foothills have been waiting for completion for decades. Two problems have stopped the work in the last ten years. First: the lack of resources. The road would have a cost, in its original route, of almost 4 billion (which is close to 5 with financial charges). Second: a long dispute with the Strabag company, winner of the second lot, which started a long dispute with the road company for the request for extra costs. At some point the two became two sides of the same coin, because the ongoing legal action prompted the banks to stop lending. For a year now, things have been unlocked. The dispute was resolved with the payment of only 25 million for the work already carried out by Strabag. Then the change of ownership has just ended: Pedemontana has passed under the control of the Lombardy Region, which therefore becomes the guarantor of the 2 billion that the banks will have to lend to allow the construction sites to move forward. Furthermore, the works were awarded three months ago, for sections B2 and C, to a grouping of companies led by Webuild (formerly Impregilo), with Pizzarotti and Astaldi. change of ownership is part of a larger project. Ferrovie Nord Milano (the Lombard railway company) acquired the motorway holding Serravalle, owner of Pedemontana, from the Lombardy Region, paying it 600 million; the Pedemontana was instead recapitalized with 350 million by the Region itself, thanks to the resources provided by Fnm for the acquisition of Serravalle. The result is that now Fnm controls Serravalle, a veritable safe, which has an average turnover of 200-220 million a year; the Region instead holds 53% of Pedemontana (38% still belongs to Serravalle and 9% of the financing banks).
Resources already spent
The company’s share capital thus reached 650 million (there is already about 300 million). 1.2 billion in public funding has already been spent on the work, plus another 200 million in bridge loans from banks. Furthermore, a tax exemption of 390 million has been envisaged. The new industrial plan provides for an adjustment of the toll, without which the project would not stand, although a few years ago the leaders of the Lombardy Region, in a burst of excessive enthusiasm, declared that it would not be necessary. (the idea of free access was by the then governor Roberto Maroni).