Alto Garda Considers Mid-Slope Road to Improve Traffic and Save Tourism
The project of a mid-slope road in Alto Garda, between Salò and Limone, is making a comeback. According to some local administrators, this is the only concrete solution to address the undeniable inadequacy of the Gardesana Occidentale, which is now no longer passable at a pace and in a manner suitable for our daily needs. The proposal was revived by Gardone Riviera’s mayor, Alessandro Bazzani, who intends to include the much-debated road connection in the new municipal master plan.
Built in record time in the 1930s, with the blessing of the Vate, who baptized it «the Meander» from the Vittoriale, the «45 bis» seems to have outlived its usefulness. Amid risks of landslides and the obvious inability to support today’s traffic volume, the old Gardesana Occidentale no longer meets the social and economic needs of Alto Garda Bresciano.
Proposal for the mid-slope connection
The long-discussed project of a mid-slope road connection is once again gaining ground. The idea was reintroduced by the mayor of Gardone during Monday’s city council meeting: «We will include the high road – said Bazzani – in the new master plan. If we don’t do it now, I believe we may regret it later.»
According to the Gardone administration, which recently entrusted a Verona-based professional with drafting the new urban planning instrument, choosing the mid-slope road is an almost obligatory decision for the area’s future. And Bazzani is not the only one to think so.
«We have consulted – he explains – our neighbors: Salò did not express support, but also did not oppose it, whereas Toscolano Maderno has already given a positive opinion on this project.» Support for this reorganization of Garda’s road network likely won’t be lacking, even from the new board of the Montane Community of Alto Garda Bresciano Park.
In the general government guidelines of the park authority’s majority, it states: «It will be necessary to promote conditions to verify the feasibility of alternative-integrative road solutions to Gardesana. The Montane Community, in coordination with the Municipalities and the Province, will endeavor with all efforts, including through the promotion of negotiated planning tools, for the effective initiation of an infrastructural project of great importance for the success of any other intervention in the territory.»
Many consider it unacceptable that in one of Italy’s most beautiful tourist areas, in the affluent North, the only existing route serving residents and tourism (which constitutes the backbone of the local economy) is in such a precarious and constantly dangerous condition.
The debate is therefore open. It is not difficult to anticipate the reactions of those who find the construction of a snake of asphalt and concrete, with viaducts and tunnels dividing the protected natural area of Alto Garda, environmentally and aesthetically unacceptable.
There are also many who see the mid-slope road as a human violence against a territory of absolute beauty that should be left untouched. While one can imagine the advantages this project might bring, it is also challenging to assess the environmental and image consequences for the hilly area of Alto Garda, which is shaping its tourist offerings around a movement seeking tranquility and harmony in largely unspoiled territories. (bot)
