Autostrade of Italy


The autostrade are roads forming the Italian national system of motorways. The total length of the system is about, as of 30 July 2022. There are also 13 motorway spur routes, which extend for.
Most of the Italian motorways have two lanes per direction/carriageway, but of the Italian motorway network have three lanes per direction/carriageway, have four lanes per carriageway, and only have five lanes per carriageway. The density is of of motorway for every of Italian territory.
Italy was the first country in the world to build motorways reserved for fast traffic and motor vehicles only. The Autostrada dei Laghi , the first built in the world, connecting Milan to Lake Como and Lake Maggiore, and now forms the A8 and A9 motorways, was devised by Piero Puricelli and inaugurated in 1924.
In northern and central Italy and in the southern regions of Campania and Apulia, the autostrade mainly consist of tollways managed by Autostrade per l'Italia, a holding company controlled by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. Other operators include ASTM, ATP, and Autostrade Lombarde in the north-west; Autostrada del Brennero, A4 Holding,, and in the north-east;, SALT, SAT, and Autocisa in the center; and CAS in Sicily.
On Italian motorways, the toll applies to almost all motorways not managed by Anas. There are two types of toll systems used on the autostrade: the "closed motorway system" or the "open motorway system". Since a motorway could be managed by numerous operators, the toll is only requested when exiting the motorway and not when the motorway operator changes. This system was made possible following Article 14 of Law 531 of 12 August 1982.

History

The term autostrada was used for the first time in an official document from 1922 in which the engineer Piero Puricelli presented the project for the Autostrada dei Laghi ; with that term, it indicated those roads characterized by a straight path, without obstacles, characterized by a high achievable speed, passable only by motor vehicles aimed at the rapid transport of goods and people.
Italy was the first country in the world to build motorways reserved for fast traffic and for motor vehicles only. The Autostrada dei Laghi , the first built in the world, connecting Milan to Lake Como and Lake Maggiore, and now parts of the Autostrada A8 and Autostrada A9, was devised by Piero Puricelli and was inaugurated in 1924. Piero Puricelli, a civil engineer and entrepreneur, received the first authorization to build a public-utility fast road in 1921, and completed the construction between 1924 and 1926. Piero Puricelli decided to cover the expenses by introducing a toll.
It was a futuristic project, because there were few cars in circulation in Italy at that time. In 1923 there were a total of 53,000 cars circulating on Italian roads. In 1927 there were 135,900 cars circulating in Italy, corresponding to one vehicle for every 230 inhabitants, while today the ratio is 1 car for every 1.6 inhabitants. The most motorized Italian regions were those of northern Italy and central Italy, with Lombardy at the top of the list with over 38,700 cars in 1923, while at the bottom of the list was Basilicata with 502 cars. Milan was the Italian city in which the most car licenses were issued annually, while the Italian region where the fewest licenses were issued was Sardinia, with only 632 new licenses.
In 1927 the Milan-Bergamo motorway was opened whose concessionary company was owned by Piero Puricelli. In 1929 the Naples-Pompei motorway was inaugurated, while in 1931 the Brescia-Bergamo motorway was inaugurated. In 1932 the Turin-Milan motorway was opened. In 1933 the Florence-Mare motorway and the Padua-Venice motorway were opened. In 1935, after 3 years of work, the Genoa-Serravalle Scrivia was opened. However, the first regulatory definition dates back only to 1933 with Royal Decree no. 1740 of 1933 which defined autostrade as roads reserved for motor vehicles only. In 1939, a year before Italy entered into the World War II, the construction of the Genoa-Savona motorway was approved.
Legislative decree 17 April 1948, n. 547 defines motorways "as those communication routes reserved for paid transit of motor vehicles, built and operated by the A.N.A.S. or by private individuals, with or without State contributions". In 1955 the Romita law was promulgated which provided that the motorway network must be present in all regions, work began on the Genoa-Savona and the doubling of single carriageway motorways began with financing law no. 1328/1955. The law of 7 February 1961, n. 59 defines motorways "as those communication routes exclusively reserved for the selected transit, usually for a fee, of motor vehicles and motorbikes, without level crossings or in any case unattended, which are recognized as such by decree of the Minister for Public Works".
In 1961, by Law 24 July 1961 n. 729, the construction of the Adriatica, Naples-Canosa and Caserta-Salerno motorways was approved. The same law provided for the construction of motorway junctions. Also in the 1960s, the first automatic pay stations were introduced for paying tolls only with coins. In 1964, the Autostrada A1 Milan-Rome was completed, the first dual carriageway motorway in the world with sections also in the mountains. In 1973 the first motorway in Sicily was inaugurated. In the 1970s the Grande Raccordo Anulare was classified as a motorway.
In 1975, law 492 was promulgated which provides for the blocking of motorway construction due to the oil crisis. Since 1981, toll tickets with mechanical perforation have been replaced with tickets with a magnetic stripe. Meanwhile, construction work continues on the motorways already under construction, which had not been affected by law 492. In 1984 the Viacard began to spread, followed in the following years by the Telepass introduced in 1990.
In 1997 work began on the modernization of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway. Completed in 2017, it was then renamed Autostrada A2, to replace the old name which then remained only for the Naples-Salerno section. In 2001, with the doubling of the Autostrada A6, all motorways in Italy are dual carriageways. In 2009 the Mestre bypass was opened. Between 2014 and 2015, the Autostrada A35, Autostrada A36, Autostrada A58, Autostrada A59, and Autostrada A60 motorways were opened. In March 2022, the 3-lane section of the Autostrada A1 southbound between Barberino di Mugello and Calenzano was opened, which—although not officially—constitutes the natural continuation of the Variante di Valico; in this stretch the Santa Lucia tunnel is crossed which, at, is the longest 3-lane tunnel in Europe.

Characteristics

In order for a road to be classified as a motorway, various geometric and construction conditions must be satisfied and these, although very similar in basis are not constant: there are different technical-legal regulations for motorways built in urban or extra-urban areas.
The Italian traffic code defines the motorway as follows:
These characteristics, however, may not be respected by virtue of the exceptions provided for by the Italian traffic code itself:
In any case, some standards are applied in all newly built motorways. For example, the interchanges must be accessible by ramps set aside from the main traffic flow, the carriageways separated by continuous median strips. There may be traffic lights intended only for emergencies, while emergency telephones must be positioned with a certain frequency in emergency parking spaces. The beginning and end of a motorway must be marked with appropriate signs.

Extent

The total length of the Italian motorway system is about, as of 30 July 2022. To these data are added 13 motorway spur routes, which extend for. In particular, of the Italian motorway network have three lanes per direction/carriageway, km have four lanes per direction/carriageway, have five lanes per carriageway, while the remaining are two lanes per direction/carriageway. The density is of motorway for every of Italian territory.

Nomenclature

Italian motorways follow a single numbering, even if managed by different concessionaire companies: they are all marked with the letter "A" followed by a number. Therefore, a motorway with the same numbering can be managed by different concessionaire companies.
In road signs the alphanumeric acronym is enclosed in a green octagon with a white acronym. The numbers of motorways and tunnels are assigned with a circular from the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport to be published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale.

Motorway concessions

The current law provides that the operational risk is transferred from the contracting authorities to the private economic operator. It also includes traffic risk, i.e. the manifestation of demand for motorway services that is lower than market forecasts and to such an extent that it does not guarantee coverage of the investments and costs of managing the works and the service. Public administrations remain responsible for risks on the supply and demand side that can be attributed outside the scope of normal operating conditions due to the existence of unforeseen and unpredictable events.
Examples of the latter case include the unavailability of the infrastructure due to the failure to carry out scheduled and breakdown maintenance by the concessionaire if it has been deprived of the necessary administrative authorizations and, in particular, of the cost variations borne by the Italian State, which in any case could have been anticipated by the private economic operator, only to then exercise the right of compensation against the public administration. A second example, on the demand side, derives from the unpredictability of demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the randomness of the choices made by the public administration to restrict citizens' freedom of movement.
The only exception to this financial scheme is represented by the contractual instrument of the public–private partnership. However, it ordinarily—but not necessarily exclusively—identifies the public administration itself, and not the citizens, as the main user-customer of the service provided by the concessionaire's infrastructure and the user of the granted work. However, it contemplates the granting of ownership or right of enjoyment of a work that is:
  • functional to the management of public services;
  • available to the contracting authority or which, without any other function of public interest, has been expropriated for this purpose. The motorway network belongs to this category.