Lake Garda Border Road Faces Traffic Jams Amid Mayor Protests
And now, the mayors of the mid-to-upper lake area are also up in arms over the 45 bis. They will meet on May 8 or 9 to assess the situation and demand interventions. The stretch from Tormini to Riva increasingly demonstrates the toll of the years. After all, “il meandro”, as the road is called, was built between spring 1929 and October 1931. Since then, only some upgrades have been made, insufficient to meet the demands of traffic that has grown exponentially. “It’s not acceptable,”
complained Toscolano Maderno’s mayor, Paolo Elena, during the latest town council meeting, “that traffic jams reach 50 kilometers”. This even risks a local woman representative, Laura Vedovelli, giving birth in the car. As happened on Easter Monday. Fortunately, the Carabinieri intervened promptly, escorting her to Gavardo hospital, where Andrea was born.
Status quo remains and mayors protest
The new road connecting Brescia city to Garda Lake is shrouded in Kafkaesque issues. First, the delays in planning and funding. Then, the construction times and the stops imposed by the archaeological area of Monte Covolo. In recent months, closures of the tunnels due to water infiltration. If that weren’t enough, recent days saw snags on the alternative bypass, following the setup of the Gavardo fair…
The mayors of Valle Sabbia have repeatedly taken to the streets, mobilizing (in some cases) or merely announcing (in others) various forms of protest against Anas: rallies, blockades, distribution of flyers… A municipal employee from Villanuova, Graziano Cippini, has already gathered four volumes of newspaper cuttings and is preparing the fifth. Even if, by the end of the year, the new 45 bis finally opens from Mazzano to the Tormini junction, the next issue remains.
“Salò, Gardone Riviera, Toscolano Maderno, and Gargnano are trapped in a sort of funnel,”
Elena states. “We’re increasingly stuck in traffic jams. Cars exist, and we must live with them. Unless a barrier is placed at Tormini, people will keep coming to the lake. In fact, I wish it were like Easter Sunday all year round. Everyone was working at full throttle: bars, restaurants, hotels, shops. Given this ongoing congestion, we have a duty to ask the residents if they want the second Gardesana, a road along the hill or half-coast that would divert traffic away from our towns. I do not rule out a public referendum.”
The mayor of Toscolano is organizing a meeting with his colleagues in the area to decide the strategy regarding traffic management. The Comunità Montana-Parco had commissioned a study to Verona-based System: it envisioned doubling some tunnels, widening others, and upgrading the carriageway…
However, the 70 billion lire funding for the initial phase was canceled (it was included among expenditure cuts aimed at meeting the parameters set by the European Union). Since then, little has been achieved despite meetings and protests. “We don’t even have the money for urgent repairs,”
Elena comments resignedly.
