One “cargo port suitable for international logistics» is among the ten actions «essential for the competitiveness and development of the Bergamo area». This is what emerges from position paper «Infrastructure, logistics and balanced development of the territory» – which also mentions Nuova Cremasca –, discussed and approved yesterday by the Bergamo 2030 Roundtable in the control room.
The document was created by a working group made up of the Chamber of Commerce, the University of Bergamo, the Province, the Municipality of Bergamo-Atb, Confindustria Bergamo, Imprese & Territorio, Cgil-Cisl-Uil, Sacbo, the local public transport agency, for explain the infrastructural needs of the territory and focus on the objectives that the governance of the system intends to pursue as priorities.
The starting point is the acknowledgment that they are identified in the province of Bergamo three systems: central area, valleys and plains. The document continues by analyzing the phase of “extensive infrastructural reorganization” underway in the Bergamo area. Reorganization which, we read, has “largely already been achieved”, with the Bergamo ring road system, the fourth lane of the A4, the doubling of the Bergamo-Treviglio railway line and the expansion of the airport. Some works are then under construction, such as the train to Orio, the Bergamo-Curno railway doubling, the new T2 Bergamo-Villa d’Almè tram line, the Bergamo-Dalmine-Verdellino e-Brt and the Bergamo-Treviglio motorway interconnection. Finally, to complete the picture there are the infrastructures «partly in the definition phase, such as the intermodal center with adjoining goods yard in Cortenuova and the design of the Nuova Cremasca route», i.e. the alternative road to the state road 591 and the 498 Soncinese.
And this is where we get to the point: in fact – writes the Chamber of Commerce in a note – «recalling the infrastructure strategies already identified by the 2018 “Commitment Framework”, the control room confirms the action “Goods terminal adapted to the international logistics” among the ten essential ones selected at the time for the competitiveness and development of the territory”. «It is necessary – he adds – that the project is based on a strong collective utility and is able to position itself as a pilot of territorial transformation, in a potentially comparable way to what happened at the time with the airport». The president, Carlo Mazzoleni, also confirms this: «The development of the intermodal center of Cortenuova with the adjoining goods yard – he declares –, once its national relevance has been verified with the competent ministry, is of central importance within the infrastructures necessary for territory”.
The timing for implementation
However, the timescales for the two infrastructures – the intermodal platform in Cortenuova and Nuova Cremasca – remain long. For the first, in particular, «a national and regional control room is essential which also gives the Province and the territory the opportunity to understand how much that work which is now proposed by private individuals is necessary for the Bergamo, Lombardy and national territory», observes the president of the Province, Pasquale Gandolfi.
For the second, however, “we are in the embryonic stages” and an advanced feasibility study still needs to be developed. «We have heard from the administrations: we must also understand with the ministry and the Region the opportunity of the importance of carrying out this work», adds Gandolfi.
A second aspect highlighted by the table is the need for the ongoing broad reorganization of local and territorial mobility to be defined in correlation with the rapidly developing scenarios of the Intelligent Transport System (ITS), which will be able to promote its efficiency and richness of the offer.
Ample space is then dedicated to the study commissioned by the Province to the «Lelio Pagani» Territorial Studies Center of the University of Bergamo. The analysis focuses on the territorial logistics system and its impacts on the provincial territory and defines some important governance tools. The concrete proposal is the establishment of the Integrated Territorial Assessment, which will serve the Municipalities and the parties proposing logistics settlement projects to clarify the characteristics of the localization area, to define the externalities and to characterize both the implementation choices, as well as the operating modes.
