Environmental Changes in Lazise: From Camping to Verona-Lake Road Development
A strong driver of environmental alteration was the camping (municipal camping site), inaugurated on June 28, 1953, during the first «Festa del Lago».
Another vehicle of alteration of the environmental tradition was the construction, by the consortium between Province, City of Verona, Communes of Bussolengo, Lazise, Pastrengo, and Bardolino, of the Verona-Lake Road.
This is what is explicitly reported on pages 138 and 139 of the volume published by the Francesco Fontana association, «Lazise come era» («Lazise as it was»), regarding the alteration of the environment and environmental tradition compared to the status quo of the typical physiognomy of Lazise’s sites, both well-known and less known.
All of this fits well with the new construction of the roundabout, that is a French-style roundabout, which is currently being developed at the intersection of provincial road no. 5, better known as Verona-Lake, and the eastern Garda road 249, coming from Peschiera and leading to Bardolino, Garda, Torri, and Malcesine, up to the border with the autonomous province of Trento.
History and project of the Verona-Lake road
«The initiation of the process for this eagerly awaited project», reads the volume, «dates back to January 1952, just a few months after the formation of the first elected provincial administration after the Liberation».
Preliminary studies involved also the major entities of the Veronese region, including the Chamber of Commerce, the Civil Engineering Office, and the Provincial Tourism Authority, which today delegates functions to local tourism promotion agencies, the engineers’ college, and other minor bodies.
Ultimately, a route was decided upon that, starting from Verona and bypassing Bussolengo, would diverge at Osteria Nuova near Pastrengo, with one branch heading toward Lazise and another toward Ronchi and Bardolino, following the project prepared by engineer Rodolfo Gianni, along with the contributions of engineers Pierluigi Bonomi Da Monte and Enea Ronca.
The Verona-Lake was inaugurated in Bussolengo on July 13, 1957.
The highway stretched for 19 kilometers, reducing by 10.5 kilometers the route from Lazise along the SS 11 to Peschiera, and then along the Gardesana.
The bitumen road bed was 7 meters wide, with a maximum gradient of 5%. Earthworks totaled 144,086 cubic meters.
The total cost of the route was 441 million lire, with over 23 million per kilometer, equivalent to more than eight billion current Italian lira.
Part of this road was traveled by then-President of the Republic Antonio Segni in 1963, when he visited the community of Caprino.
He traveled from Bussolengo through Pastrengo, aboard the presidential convoy coming from the military airport of Villafranca.
During the journey, he praised the work to the then Mayor of Verona Gozzi and the Mayor of Caprino Luciano Dal Falco.