In Sicily there are 15 thousand workers missing on construction sites, which are increasingly slowing down. As today’s edition of Repubblica Palermo writes, the risk is of having to return 3.5 billion allocated with the National Recovery and Resilience Plan for the railways, the renovation of hospitals, the creation of community homes, school buildings, infrastructure water.
The words of the ANCE
“At the moment we are witnessing a fratricidal struggle between us – says Santo Cutrone, regional president of the building builders’ association (Ance) – entrepreneurs, desperate, are trying to take away each other’s workforce by promising better wages”. In the days in which large works are inserted into electoral programs between announcements, promises and selfies, builders raise the alarm: “In Sicily there is a lack of operators of excavating machines, shovels, cranes – continues Cutrone – carpenters, bricklayers, surveyors. A disaster” There is a real risk that the projects will end up among the unrealizable works of the Pnrr: the deadline is 2026.
“We will never make it,” the builders spread their arms. All this could translate into a disaster for companies, for the coffers of the Region and the State. And for the landscape which would find itself invaded by further unfinished works: on the island they are so numerous that they are part of a register kept by the Region.
Difficult to find a solution
“Solution? Currently we don’t have any, a carpenter or a machine operator cannot be trained in a few months – says Cutrone – there hasn’t been a generational change, it’s everyone’s fault: we should have invested in construction training instead of financing courses for beauticians, hairdressers. We have contacts with Tunisia or Algeria to bring technicians to Italy and the national ANCE has drawn up a protocol for three thousand units: not even surveyors and engineers can be found”
The challenges
The most demanding challenge is on the railway front: the Palermo-Catania route financed with 1 billion and 440 thousand euros and the electrification of the Palermo – Trapani line with 270 million. In Trapani there are 60 million foreseen by the Pnrr for construction sites, several companies are at a standstill. In the other provinces the works have started but are proceeding slowly: 149 million for the works in Palermo, 379 in Catania, 343 in Messina. To which add 550 million between territorial operations centers, water infrastructures and cycle paths in the Municipalities.
