Four motorway viaducts of the A19 Palermo-Catania are once again passable, improving the flow of traffic and the safety of motorists. This was announced by the president of the Sicilian Region Renato Schifani, in his capacity as extraordinary commissioner for the coordination of interventions on the A19, who this morning participated in the ceremony of reopening to traffic of the roadway towards Catania, between the Buonfornello and Scillato junctions. Also present were the regional councilor for Infrastructure and mobility Alessandro Aricò, the two sub-commissioners Lelio Russo and Sergio Tumminello, the Anas managers of the Anas Sicilia Territorial Structure and the representatives of the Infra.Tech company of Sant’Agata di Militello, in the Messina area. “Other construction sites are concluded – Schifani underlines – making the motorway safer and smoother, especially coinciding with a period characterized by intense traffic such as that of the 25th April and 1st May long weekend. Since my appointment as extraordinary commissioner, thanks to the commitment of the two sub-commissioners whom I thank for the work done, there has been an acceleration both in the completion of some construction sites and in the opening of others. A team spirit has been created and this has led to a sort of competition between companies to see who finishes first. By December 2026 we hope to make this motorway completely or almost completely free, which had never been the subject of ordinary or extraordinary maintenance interventions”. Anas, a company of the Infrastructure Hub of the FS Italiane Group, has completed the redevelopment works on four viaducts and a tunnel in the roadway, between kilometer 53 and kilometer 54,800, between the Buonfornello and Scillato junctions, in the direction of Catania, as foreseen by the €1.1 billion maintenance plan underway across the entire motorway. In particular, the workers worked on the ‘Portelle’, ‘Comunello’, ‘Capraria’ and ‘Guggino’ viaducts, affected by the replacement of the lateral safety barriers after the resurfacing of the curbs, by the reinforcement of the slabs and slab heads, by the replacement of expansion joints, waterproofing and improvement of water disposal systems. Cortical restoration interventions were also carried out inside the tunnel present in the section, called ‘Capraria’. New draining pavement was also laid along the 1.8 kilometer long route and new lateral barriers were installed. The investment amount exceeds 7.3 million euros. During last summer, the same works were completed along the roadway towards Palermo, which therefore hosted the entire flow of vehicles in both directions. The traffic, which until now was two-way traffic on the opposite carriageway, will resume the configuration of separate carriageways, even if for another fifteen days transit will be on a single lane, to allow the work to be completed near an opening used for the lane exchange and for the preparation of the definitive road markings. The work just completed, in addition to significantly extending the life of the infrastructure built over fifty years ago, “they have allowed a significant increase in the level of service – says Anas – and traffic safety conditions”. The reopening of the motorway section was an opportunity to take stock of the works completed since the beginning of the administration: ten construction sites worth 27 million euros. Another three worth 105 million euros were started at the end of last year, to which another three worth 22 million will be added in these first months of 2024. By the end of the year, works worth 100 million will start and another 13 construction sites will be completed for an amount of approximately 85 million. Upon Schifani’s input, from mid-July to September, some motorway construction sites will be suspended to make traffic flow more smoothly in the summer period. The objective for the future is not to simultaneously exceed 30 kilometers of closed areas out of a total of 190.
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