On the day in which the Court of Auditors gives the green light for the passage of Autostrade per l’Italia to the consortium led by Cdp, the motorway concessionaire shows all its engineering and construction skills, expressed in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. This is the new three-lane section on the A1, between Barberino di Mugello and Calenzano, 17.5 kilometers long, 60% in a tunnel and with two viaducts, inaugurated yesterday after a decade of work and accessible from today. The investment was one billion euros. It is a work considered unique in terms of size and technology, the most important infrastructural intervention in recent years and the missing piece to make the Bologna-Florence three-lane highway, one of the busiest hubs in the country (100 vehicles per minute during tip).
“An infrastructure to be proud of” repeated all those present at the ceremony which took place in a tensile structure set up on the new section, by the president of Autostrade Giuliano Mari to the CEO Roberto Tomasi, by the presidents of the Tuscany and Emilia Romagna regions, Eugenio Giani and Stefano Bonaccini, up to the mayors of the metropolitan city of Florence, Dario Nardella, of Barberino, Giampiero Mongatti, and of Calenzano, Riccardo Prestini, who however underlined the delays with which the section was built. On video link, the Minister of Infrastructures, Enrico Giovannini: “This work testifies to the skills present in our country – he said – and is a guarantee for carrying out the relevant investment programs on the road and motorway network planned for the next few years”.
The new three-lane section, which represents the “tail” of the Variante di Pass, will be traveled by those traveling southwards; those traveling north, on the other hand, will continue to follow the old route, which will widen from two to four lanes (annexing the current ones) and will be subject – in the next three years – to redevelopment works also by Autostrade per l’Italia.
The engineering complexity is contained above all in the Santa Lucia tunnel, 7.7 kilometers long, the largest in Europe with three lanes, excavated by a maxi cutter with a head with a diameter of 16 meters and an innovative technology that has guaranteed safety to the workers. and reduced environmental impact.
“This infrastructural work has an impact on the development of the country system – said the CEO Tomasi – we have estimated that it will save the community 1.5 million hours a year, reducing travel time by 30%”. It took six million working hours to build it (construction sites remained open even during the hardest phase of the pandemic), with an average of 500 people working a day. Almost all of the excavated land (6 million cubic meters) was reused on the Autostrade sites: four million cubic meters will be used to build the (future) Bellosguardo service area and the (future) third lane on the A11.