Autostrada A90
Autostrada A90 or Grande Raccordo Anulare or GRA is a ring-shaped autostrada long in Italy located in the region of Lazio that encircles central Rome. It is a part of the E80 European route. The A90 is one of the most important roads in Rome, and traffic reaches 160,000 vehicles per day as of 2011.
The A90 features 14 tunnels, with lengths varying from the 66 meters of Parco di Veio II tunnel to the meters of the Appia Antica tunnel as well as eight rest areas. It has 42 junctions, with the Via Aurelia numbered 1 and the rest following clockwise.
The motorway has always been toll-free. However, there are plans to introduce a fee for vehicles entering the A90 from highways. Maintenance costs are around 11 million per year.
Its acronym was given after one of its main designers and supporters, Eugenio Gra, chairman of Anas, the Italian roads Authority, at the time of construction. The official number among the Italian motorways is Autostrada A90, but is widely known by Romans as Il Raccordo.
History
Plans for an orbital road around what, at the time, was considered to be the entire city of Rome were proposed by the end of World War II. One of the designers' main purposes was to build the road as most equally distant as possible from the geographic centre of town, the Campidoglio, away from the motorway.Construction works started in 1948. The first section, Flaminia to Tiburtina opened in 1952, later extended in stages. The last section to be opened was the west-to-north section, in 1970.
Although the A90 was initially planned and built as a single-carriageway road, it was soon clear that traffic was rapidly growing well beyond the expectations. Construction works to motorway standards started in late 1950s with first dual-carriageway, four-lane section opened 1962. Further works were carried over throughout the 1970s, and by 1979, the remainder sections were widened to four-lane and the entire ring classified as toll-free highway.
Widening works to 6-lane started in 1983 and were completed in stages throughout the 1990s and 2000s. As of April 2008 97% of the A90 was 6-lane with final sections opened 2011.
Over the years the city of Rome has expanded well beyond the A90, especially in the direction of neighborhoods such as Ostia, Olgiata, Borghesiana and Albano Laziale where Rome's built-up urban "tentacles" will reach up to about 15 kilometers in length from the ringroad outward.
Timeline
- 1948: Building works began.
- 1951: The Appia-Aurelia section is opened.
- 1952: The Flaminia-Tiburtina section is opened.
- 1955: The Tiburtina-Appia section is opened.
- 1960: The road was part of the marathon course of the 1960 Summer Olympics.
- 1962: The lane number is doubled in Salaria-Tuscolana section
- 1970: The Aurelia-Flaminia section is opened, the ring is completed.
- 1979: The A90 is now officially a highway.
- 1983: Works to a 6-lane set begin.
- 1997: 50% of the A90 track is on a 6-lane set
- 2000: 75% of the A90 track is on a 6-lane set
- 2007: 97% of the A90 track is on a 6-lane set
- 2011: End of works to the 6-lane set
Future expansion
Such a project would imply a new external ring-shaped orbital motorway of about, denominated NIA, which would cost over €5 billion.
In popular culture
The road was the subject of the 2013 documentary film Sacro GRA which won the Golden Lion at the 70th Venice International Film Festival.Trivia
Although the name GRA officially stands for Grande Raccordo Anulare, the name was actually coined in order to make its acronym be the name of the head of the project, engineer Eugenio Gra.Route
Other Italian roads
- State highways
- Regional road
- Provincial road
- Municipal road