April 26, 2024, 05:01
2 min read
CATANIA – The timetable said that the portion of Catania metro from Piazza Stesicoro to Piazza Palestro should have been completed by April 2024. But the deadline, as is evident, has passed. And we don’t know for how much longer. Maybe several months.
The Stesicoro-Airport is a candidate to become the most troubled, at least so far, of the routes with which the Circumetnea Railway (Fce) had to do the math. First the collapse of via Castromarino, then the crisis of the contracting company, the Cmc of Ravenna.
European financing
The Europe loves Sicily website, which reports on the projects financed by the European Union, is still optimistic: “The construction sites are open first lot Stesicoro-Palestro2.2 kilometers long, and the works, in progress, will be completed by 2023”.
Once arrived under Piazza Palestro, the Fortino, the tracks should continue to the Vincenzo Bellini airport. Everyone in the gallery. There are, in theory, eight further metro stations. Spread across 6.8 kilometers of route. Total cost? More than 478 million euros.
To this money must be added, always arriving from Brussels, the 42 million euros that will be used for the purchase of ten new trains. “The financial envelope of the entire project thus exceeds half a billion euros”, we read in the information material of the Po Fesr Sicily 2014-2020.
The accumulated delays
The fact is, however, that the delay in the delivery of the section up to Palestro has been a certainty for some time. Now confirmed by a provision from the municipal police of Catania which extends the closure to traffic of via Reclusorio del lumethe heart of the works.
The road was closed to traffic in January 2023, to allow for the installation of the construction site necessary for consolidation of the area. In July last year and then in December, an extension of the ban on cars on that road was ordered. Postponement expiring on April 30, 2024.
A note from the engineer Salvatore Fiore, general director of the Ferrovia Circumetnea, arrived close to the new deadline. Fiore, responding to a request from the Cmc of Ravenna, asked Palazzo degli elephanti to keep via Reclusorio del lume closed for a while longer.
In fact, alternating different sections of the road, there should be workers and vehicles in the area at least until August 31, 2024. A figure that does not bode well for the completion of the first batch. Even more so, remembering the optimistic project forecasts: “The intervention – it was believed – will be completed by 2025”.
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Published on
April 26, 2024, 05:01
