BARI – Inconveniences will be inevitable with cars heading towards Murat forced to turn right onto Via Andrea da Bari to find alternative routes along the quadrilateral. But the work is necessary to avoid cracks and breakages.
WORKSITE – The long-awaited maintenance work on the paving stones of via Sparano has started in the city center and in particular in the section that crosses via Dante. Since yesterday morning the road – for just one block – has been closed to cars to allow workers to carry out consolidation work. During the construction site, the seal of the paving stones will be strengthened through the use of particularly high-performance materials, the installation of which requires a few days to obtain a better result.
And therefore no stopping and no transit. The material used is «Mapestone PFS 2« (from the Italian company Mapei), a ready-to-use powder premix for grouting stone driveway floors. A product that therefore allows the creation of highly durable architectural stone floors even in environments subject to saturation, freeze and thaw cycles in the presence of de-icing salts and sea water. In short, a strengthening technique already used a year and a half ago, for the first time, at the intersection of via Sparano, via Nicolai and piazza Umberto.
CONTROVERSY In the autumn of 2022 – not without controversy from traders and residents due to the infinite duration of the works – the workers took steps to remove the entire area of the central slabs in correspondence with the pedestrian crossing and the passage of cars. Here the undamaged slabs were saved, while the broken ones were replaced. A special screed was placed under the slabs to prevent further sagging.
And the results have been positive: from 2022 to today, municipal technicians have not detected any cracks or breakages despite it being a very busy and crucial road for traffic in the city centre.
Hence the decision to use the same material for the crossing of via Sparano on via Dante which, calendar in hand, should be finished in about twenty days with the Municipality’s aim, where possible, to speed up the works.
POSTPONEMENTS The start of the works was initially scheduled for the last days of April (to be precise, Monday 29th), but then between the May 1st long weekend and the patron saint’s day of San Nicola, it was decided to postpone so as not to create an obstacle to the holidays and limit the inconvenience to a Murat which notoriously goes haywire on the traffic front for the patronal feast. Once this intersection has been completed, similar interventions will be carried out on all the vehicular intersections on via Sparano using the same materials, the same installation techniques and the same criterion used to close small portions of via Sparano to car traffic.
In fact, stopping parking and transit becomes essential to allow the material to adhere and guarantee better performance. Only on the via Sparano-via Piccinni intersection will there not be a total closure to cars: the workers will work on the semi-carriageway as it is a very central road in the centre, especially due to the passage of some Amtab urban lines coming from via Andrea da Bari take via Piccinni towards Corso Cavour.
At the moment there is no definitive timetable but the objective of the municipal traffic and public works offices is to complete the interventions by the end of the year.
