Limone and Riva Seek Solutions Amid Gardesana Closure Crisis
It didn’t take long to see the consequences. With just a first, hesitant mention of holidays during the New Year’s festivities, the entire structure set up to face the closure of the Gardesana Occidentale collapsed with relentless punctuality.
The New Year’s bridge thus exposed all the precariousness and improvisation of the measures meant to resolve the emergency. Emblematic is the decision to “park” twelve buses of tourists expected in Limone at the hotels in Riva.
The response of the local administration
“The tourist package included some tours in Trentino,” explains Limone Mayor Gianbattista Martinelli. “It was certainly unthinkable to ferry them every morning to Riva: luckily, Mayor Malossini kindly found accommodations for them…”
Contacts between the two mayors have become increasingly intense in recent days. Also because, as we have noted, the Mincio ferry immediately went out of service (will it be repaired today?), and only since yesterday has Navigarda (while passenger traffic shifted to boats) deployed the ‘substitute’: a small ferry that can carry a mere dozen vehicles, excluding trucks.
Potential developments and future solutions
It is conceivable that Limone’s isolation could continue as it is now; equally, the Riva port might see (in season) vehicle traffic towards Brescia that could compare to the Piombino-Elba route.
Riva’s council will meet next week in an extraordinary session to discuss the Gardesana issue and, specifically, its feared two-year closure.
This is a prospect that the Riva municipal assembly intends to officially oppose, approving a motion that Ivo Gentilini has had signed in record time by many fellow councilors.
Political situation and future prospects
“The Province of Trento,” explains the mayor, “has not made any official decisions regarding the fate of the Gardesana. There was only a press conference by an alderman (Casagranda, of public works, ed.).”
In a few days, a meeting is scheduled between President Dellai and the officials of Riva and Limone: it is there that the matter will be seriously discussed.”
Regional interventions and ongoing initiatives
The issue of the Western route remains at the top of the priorities for the Trentino government, but on the other side of the landslide (the Lombard side), some movement is happening.
Today, in Limone, and immediately after at the foot of the landslide, high-level regional officials from Lombardy, led by Vice President Beccalossi, a close associate of Formigoni, will arrive.
The residents of Limone are determined to connect their political leaders with those from Trentino: they are calling for a quick resolution of the problem. Reopen the road while building the tunnel.