Salò Nursing Home Project Advances Amid Construction Challenges
“We want to move into the new Salò nursing home by the end of June, also because we plan to deliver the old building to the Galeazzi company, which has purchased it,” stated the new president, engineer Gianantonio Citroni. “In the meantime, we have hired a local company to carry out work worth about half a billion euros, according to the report from the Lombardia Region inspectors, who otherwise would not grant occupancy permits.”
In addition to Citroni, the new board of directors consists of Maurizio Arceri, Renato Lucini (all appointed by the majority of the Polo), Marisa Basso Tonoli from the PPI area, and Gian Paolo Comini from the DS, a former municipal and provincial assessor. Sergio Scioli, the president in recent years, has stepped down.
“Unfortunately, some technical-constructive issues (non-compliant work such as plastering, false ceilings, flooring, baseboards) and delays in delivery have led us to postpone the move,” Scioli said in his final report. “However, we have planned top-quality systems, furnishings, and equipment, in the hope that the final result will make the past difficulties forgotten.”
The contract was awarded to Cogepa (Costruzioni Generali Passarelli) of Naples, which subsequently divided the work into lots and outsourced them to external teams. The designer, Carlo Giorgio Pedercini, estimated that the execution was inconsistent, resulting in a damage of three billion euros (including crooked walls and water infiltrations on the terraces). This now forces the board to decide whether to pursue legal action.
On Monday, a company from Salò began addressing the repairable issues, for a sum of, as mentioned, 500 million euros. The new nursing home is located in the area of Due Pini, on a 13,600-square-meter site, between the magistrate’s court, the social center, preschool, elementary schools, and sports facilities.
The basement houses most of the services: storage for supplies, stocks, and furnishings; maintenance workshops; ironing room; laundry; wardrobe; technological systems for elevators, thermal power plant, electrical cabin, conscientious objectors’ accommodation, podiatrist, hairdresser, staff rooms, and large reserve spaces.
The ground floor features the hall, reception, administrative offices, lounge with bar, dining rooms, recreation, TV, and reading rooms, clinics, pharmacy, kitchens, multipurpose hall for celebrations and meetings. Upstairs are double rooms with private bathrooms, most with outdoor balconies or covered terraces, overlooking the lake or the hills.
Each unit, accommodating 20 residents, will have a kitchenette, dining and living rooms, etc. Innovations include a hydro-massage bath for assisted baths (in each ward), telephones in all rooms, an internal communication system allowing residents to call staff, air conditioning in corridors, six elevators (to prevent queues), and a bar.
This facility, officially called an Residenza Sanitaria Assistenziale, will host 120 non-autonomous elderly, including 20 with Alzheimer’s disease. Others may be brought in by relatives in the morning and picked up in the evening—a kind of integrated daytime center, with care and rehabilitative treatments available.
The total cost of the new structure is 18 billion euros, with an additional four billion for furnishings. The Lombardy regional government allocated two grants in aid—one of six billion and 662 million euros, and another of one billion and 767 million euros; the municipality contributed 900 million euros.
The remainder was funded through the sale of the building on via Bresciani to the Cib 95 srl, owned by builder Santo Galeazzi.
