Verona-Lake Road Project: Traffic Upgrades and Infrastructure Development
The project dates back to January 1952, just a few months after the establishment of the first elected provincial administration following the Liberation, marking a practical assessment of the realization of Verona-Lake. However, as early as January 1940, fascist secretaries, podestà, and other hierarchs had met in Bardolino to discuss “some issues concerning the increase in tourism and the valorization of the lake, primarily” — as reported at the time by the publication “Verona e il Carda” — involving the construction of the Verona-Lake road, “which all other initiatives were subordinate to”.
The Consortium for the construction of the road was formed later in 1954, comprising the Province of Verona, the Municipality of Verona, and the municipalities of Bussolengo, Pastrengo, Lazise, and Bardolino. However, in the following year, Bardolino withdrew from the project after the City Council denied approval of the funding for its share: a negative decision confirmed by the “referendum” called to decide on the Council’s vote.
Construction works were assigned to companies in August 1955: the Marzola company from Verona for the Croce Bianca-Bussolengo and Bussolengo-Osteria Nuova sections, and Giovanni Tonolli from Goito for the third section Osteria Nuova-Lazise. Only in 1957 was the Bussolengo bypass approved, intended to connect the first and second sections. The entire route, measuring 19.024 kilometers, cost just over 440 million lire.
Interchange and traffic issues
A roundabout road interchange will be constructed at the intersection of the Gardesana Orientale road, the Verona-Lake provincial road, and Via Marra. This is a dangerous intersection, long criticized and complained about, especially by motorists, due to traffic jams on holidays and during the summer, when tourist traffic increases. It is a strategic point that even the complex traffic light system installed in the 1970s failed to regulate, eventually leading to its removal, as instead of easing traffic flow, it only complicated it.
This problem is expected to be resolved now with the creation of a slightly relocated roundabout further south than the current intersection, made possible after the free granting of an area by the Italian Wines Group of Calmasino to the Municipality. The project, approved last September by the Municipal Technical Commission and subsequently by the Verona Environmental Heritage Superintendency and the Province Administration, is now under review by Anas, Department of Venice, which plans to finance the works with an allocation of up to 300 million lire.
The final hurdle to complete the bureaucratic process and ensure the project’s realization was the availability of the area belonging to the wine establishment Lamberti. In the latest session, the City Council, besides approving the free transfer, authorized the drafting of the contract and tasked the Public Works Office head with stipulating, with the notary seal of the municipal secretary or a notary, the final transfer deed of the land to the Municipality for public utility purposes.
“We are now awaiting Anas’s decisions,” said the municipal councilor responsible for public works, Fabio Marinoni, “to start the work, aiming to complete it possibly before the beginning of the summer tourist season.” The project includes extending the sidewalks, creating urban furniture in harmony with the architectural styles of the area, and particularly ensuring safer and more suitable access to and from the parking area at Marra locality downstream of the Gardesana road.