THE INDISCRETE by Maurizio Ronconi | The Foligno-Civitanova road was a failure: it’s worth a fish meal and that’s it

Few believed in the feasibility of a road project like the SS75, the Foligno Civitanova Marche so to speak, because the bumps to overcome were not easy and the tunnel crossings were long, because the construction costs were very high, because the left-wing majorities that then governed the lands of the Umbrian side, it is not that they were, at least initially, particularly involved in the project sponsored by the then vice-minister Baldassarri, because institutions such as the Chamber of Commerce were not enthusiastic and ready to participate in the capital of the Quadrilatero, the company which was entrusted with the realization of the work. Furthermore, the project envisaged as a co-financing tool the valorisation of the areas adjacent to the artery which, at least on the Umbrian side, did not exist and therefore required other significant public funding.

Yet despite the many critical issues, the work was completed, even quickly, imagining the new modern and smooth communication route between Umbria and Marche above all as an extraordinary driving force for the economy of the two regions.
In reality this unfortunately did not happen. It’s a one-way street. For Umbrians particularly from Foligno and from the Umbrian Valley, it is the sea route, the one that is taken precisely to go and sunbathe on the Marche beaches, perhaps for a while; of fish for lunch and then in the opposite direction to go home. A bit’; little for an infrastructural work like the one which ultimately made communications between that part of Umbria and the Macerata area, Civitanova and the Fermo area, i.e. geographical areas of central Italy, which historically, although crossing winding and uncomfortable mountain roads, they have established solid commercial and social links with Foligno and this part of Umbria.

This path did not generate what was expected. If on the Marche side there were already small industrial activities, with the exception of Merloni, and above all the artisan shoe district was established with a solid commercial network, on the Foligno side little has moved despite a context that was once traditionally strong in trade and mechanical industrial activity. If the latter have further strengthened, it is not a consequence of the new road communication but of the intrinsic capabilities that have made them assert themselves on a national and above all global level. In reality, the foundations were not laid for new commercial centers or even advanced tertiary sectors to arise in Foligno which could have transformed the entire Umbrian Valley from a traditionally commercial one with metalworking settlements into a modern “shopping valley”, a district of advanced activities both commercial, transformational and advanced tertiary nature, a center of gravity between central Umbria and the Marche, a development nucleus that would characterize and transform an important part
of central Italy. We have remained with traditional activities which in an extraordinary and rapidly evolving world risk aging dramatically.

I don’t think the responsibilities can be attributed to the last municipal administration of Foligno because it had little time, but they date back to at least 20 years ago when the Region, the regional and local institutions, with a few authoritative exceptions, did not believe much in this work and they did not think about preparing programs and projects to adapt Foligno and its valley to the opportunities and modernizations offered by the new road. A match badly lost which resulted in a new stasis, if not immobility, certainly many missed opportunities. We remain with the one-way road, content with the Marche beaches and fish for lunch. A little little, at least for the Umbrians, for the expectations that the new Foligno Civitanova had generated.