The construction site of Ponte Risorgimento in Rome, a junction between the Flaminio, Prati and Farnesina districts, is at a standstill. The restoration and consolidation works on the bridge were supposed to finish at the end of May but during the interventions to move the underground services (electricity, water, gas and telecommunications networks) unforeseen events were encountered which forced the project to be remodulated and, consequently, also the times.
The fact is that – to date – the work on the underground services is 90 percent complete along the right pavement towards Viale Mazzini, and will only subsequently begin on the other mirrored pavement. The actual redevelopment works, however, have not yet started. And the delays have not been lost on the residents and workers who cross the quadrant every day. “They’ve been doing the work for almost a year but it’s proceeding in fits and starts,” complains Guglielmo, a resident of around 35 years of age as he crosses the bridge on his bicycle. “I see them working every other day,” adds an elderly local resident in his eighties. “The work was supposed to finish on May 19 – adds the man – I thought it was a delay of a few weeks, but a worker told me that it could take a few more months. And the inconveniences related to traffic continue, because the road is narrow,” he concludes.
From what we learn from sources in the Department of Public Works, however, the intention is to dismantle the pedestrian protection arches and return to ordinary traffic in the quadrant, in any case, by the Jubilee, to avoid traffic congestion. A first hypothesis is to significantly accelerate the consolidation work on the bridge, for which the scaffolding is already being installed. Initially, however, a period of 8 months was estimated for these interventions, well beyond the start date of the Holy Year: it will be necessary to understand whether the time can be halved. If this is not possible, a second hypothesis is to only finish the work on the underground services, dismantle the construction site and reactivate it at the end of the religious event in 2026.
2.8 million euros have been allocated in the municipal budget for the work and the works are divided into four phases: weeding, cleaning, consolidation and protection. Near the bridge there is the Vittorio Emanuele II national boarding school and a few kilometers away, there are various offices of the court and of the RAI, between Lepanto, viale Mazzini and piazzale Clodio. The bridge is therefore a crossroads for those who go to work and for those who live in the neighboring neighborhoods. “We are in Rome and in the centre: traffic and inconveniences are the order of the day. As we know, deadlines are often not respected, but here the main problems depend above all on people’s ignorance: people park everywhere and pass by with bicycles and scooters even where it is not allowed”, observes Antonio, an employee in the area.
“At this intersection there have been at least four accidents in the last period, from January-February to now,” says a waitress at the Rossopomodoro pizzeria, on the Viale Mazzini side. “The problem – she adds – is that a part of the construction site covers the view for those arriving from the bridge or the Tiber, even though there is a traffic light. But it is also dangerous for pedestrians. They have put up pedestrian guards, but they still stay inside the lane.” To allow the safe passage of pedestrians, on both sides of the bridge, in fact, pedestrian protection arches were subsequently installed next to the construction site with the aim also of limiting the undisciplined behavior of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists who, instead of follow the paths indicated with yellow stripes, they invaded each other’s spaces.
