Like the bridge over the Strait of Messina, a mythological project that occasionally appears in politicians’ speeches and on some paper. Or, if you want, like the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorwaythe creation of which went on for an apparently infinite time, however enough to cover several generations.
Words words words
Thus the via Roma tunnel in Cagliari it seems like that dream that vanishes with the rising of the sunthat project capable (so it is said) of solving all the city’s ills and yet which has so far remained a simple wish of the various municipal administrations without being transformed into a real work. A fairy tale with no happy ending. Today the political authority seems convinced that it has embarked on the final straight line, which will lead towards an intervention considered decisive for improving circulation and capable of following up on the large “square by the sea” idealized by every successive city government in the last half century or so. There.
There has been talk about the tunnel since the 1990s (perhaps before), and it was at the dawn of that decade that Italferr, a State Railways company, won the billion-dollar competition announced by the Region for its design. It seems like yesterday, over 30 years have passed. In the meantime the capital has seen six mayors and two prefectural commissioners alternate at Palazzo Bacaredda, the (presumed) costs of construction have increased, the hypothesis on which was the suitable work (submarine road axis or underground trench) has changed several times. Since then, those who were children have become adults. May this decade be the one in which fantasy becomes reality?
Traffic
The idea is to free the main road of Cagliari from vehicular traffic creating a single open space that allows residents and tourists to walk from the arcades to the seafront without the risk of being overwhelmed and in any case without having to deal with the “barriers” created by traffic, leaving only public transport on the surface ( bus and metro). An area connected to the new Piazza Matteotti and the large transport hub to be built in the train station.
But the goal faces countless obstacles and perhaps it is no coincidence that, just like the path still to come, it appears and disappears at a regular pace, between costs that fluctuate even from month to month, entry and exit points that are not very clear, apparently uncertain dimensions and results (for some) unsafe. Among the objectives to be achieved would be a drastic drop in the number of cars pouring onto the roadwith the following possibility of reevaluating the entire surrounding area (Largo Carlo Felice and the Marina), but over the years someone has pointed out that in reality the new system could have the opposite effect. And that is to attract an even greater volume of vehicles. Without considering the traffic jam that regularly arises during rush hour in Viale La Plaia, with or without a tunnel.
And then: it is known that the land is rich in finds, even closer to the port. It is no coincidence that about ten years ago the archaeologist Maria Antonietta Mongiu objected to the hypothesis of excavations: «Given the thousand-year history of the city, there is no doubt that the works would not proceed in a linear manner». Because underneath there are crypts, quarries and cisterns, testimony to millenary Cagliari. A small discovery would be enough to block everything indefinitely. Let it be an example what happened last year at the point of the train station above which the tram terminus was originally supposed to be built: came to light an aqueduct from the Roman era on which the entire ancient urban network was grafted. What could happen when working on an underwater tunnel or carrying out an underground excavation?
The numbers
In any case, even overlooking these “small” problems, it remains to understand what the real numbers of the work are: cost, length, location of accesses and related works. Going back in time and in the archives of the Sardinian Union it is possible to reconstruct the variations. Even at the beginning of this year there is talk of spending around 80 million euros for an “open tunnel” (i.e. a trench) 300 meters long at most, 7 or 8 meters deep, with two lanes in each directionwhich you will enter in via Molo Sant’Agostino or in piazza Matteotti and from which you will exit in via Roma on the port side in front of the Regional Council, which will be connected to a first roundabout between viale La Plaia and via Sassari and a second between piazza Deffenu and Diaz Avenue. Cost of the design tender (already awarded): 3.5 million euros.
In May 2023the year in which (more or less) the trench hypothesis was decidedly favored, the route is unchanged but an excavation of around 4 or 5 meters and a cost of between 100 and 120 million is assumed. Just two months earlier the trench was said to be 7 meters deep, while the works would cost 90 million. In 2022 the “submarine tunnel” alternative is still being discussed (even still defined as the “best solution” in 2020) with an estimated expenditure of 300 million euros for a route that has the entrance in the Riva di Ponente area and the exit in viale Colombo/viale Diaz.
Time flows
In the previous decade little was said about it, in any case not as much as in recent years, and you have to go back to 2009 to hear the tunnel discussed as “one of the key pieces for the economic development of the entire vast area”included since 2006 among the works of national strategic interest (but, it is explained immediately afterwards, the funds that the Region had to pass on to the Municipality to carry out the project were never released). In that case the route had to be more than a kilometer long, have four lanes, entrances on viale La Plaia and viale Colombo and withstand traffic of 4 thousand vehicles per hour for a cost of between 100 and 125 million euros. At his side they had to be realized two underground car parks: one under Via Roma with 650 seats (a project that is said to have already been approved by the Council with a tender launched and awaiting award) and another under the Ichnusa pier with 800 seats.
Two years earlier the work was indicated as “a priority for the city” and it is stated that “within the year” work would begin on the underground car park in Via Roma in the area between the port side, Piazza Matteotti/bus station, the port exit on the Piazza Darsena side to the east and the fence of the port to the south. We know how it ended, and in any case even then the lack of money was underlined. Even if the idea at the time was a little different: the traffic, hypothetically relieved of the vehicles coming from Pula, Capoterra and Sarroch, must be transferred inside the port and to the central flowerbed of Via Roma. The tunnel, on the other hand, is planned with four lanes (two for each direction), an entrance from via Riva di Ponente at the customs level, the route that tangentially crosses the port passing under the Sanità pier (where the maritime station is ) and emerges on viale Colombo at the old Capitaneria, which must be demolished (it is also guaranteed the presence of an agreement already reached between the Municipality and the Navy for the construction of the building in another part of the city).
Finish line
In 2006, the summons to the competent ministry is believed to be imminent of the last services conference for the definitive green light for the work, the cost of which is indicated at 125 million euros for a length of one kilometer and 100 meters plus two ramps of 220 meters each (the first in via Riva di Ponente, near the petrol station), with two lanes in each direction, sidewalks, an emergency exit every 300 meters. The route must pass under the port quay, seven meters below sea level, and after passing the Capitaneria building emerge at the beginning of Viale Colombo (with an adjoining second ramp up to the intersection with Via Sonnino).
In 2004 we talk about costs of 76 million and “an excavation of a few meters is already being hypothesized, carrying out any prefabricated civil works and closing the created space”creating a roof over the gallery so as to create “a large square on the sea”.
In 2003, the then infrastructure minister Pietro Lunardi signed a check for 103 million72 of which for the Via Roma underpass. But there is only a preliminary project and not the definitive oneso despite the Government representative being dangerously unbalanced (“the construction sites could be opened at the beginning of 2004”), everything remains as it is.
If you wanted, you could go back to 1998 and 1996. And even further in time. But we think that the report, perhaps not very short but useful, is sufficient to make it clear how sincere the good intentions are and how equally ephemeral and fragile the proclamations. Maybe the tunnel will actually be built. Allow us, given the precedents, to have the doubt that it could happen.
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