“Over the years there had been talk of a connection between the Parco Leonardo area and Dragona, through an infrastructure between the two territories”
by Fernanda De Nitto
Demos Fiumicino has been asking for the scrapping of the Scafa mega bridge project for years. A work that was supposed to replace the current bridge, currently the only connection between the Municipality of Fiumicino and the X Municipality of the Municipality of Rome. A project that is now dated and obsolete, even before it was put on site. Demos (Solidarity Democracy) asks the administration to examine alternative road proposalsless impactful and invasive, for a “fragile” territory like that of the Sacred Island.
To get a comprehensive picture of the reasons why the megabridge is no longer the solution to the age-old traffic problem between Ostia and Fiumicino, we talk about it with Maurizio Ferreri, from Demos Fiumicino.
For some time now, your party has been following the whole affair relating to the doubling of the Scafa bridge, paying particular attention to the megabridge proposal.
What are the reasons that lead you to be against this work?
“In all these years, with the precious collaboration of the Friends of the Lungomare di Roma Association, we have always tried to expose all the problems, both technical and environmental, connected to the megabridge project. An old project from 2007 was immediately found not to comply with the regulations in force at the time and which in fact blocked, for years, alternative solutions that could have been created in harmony and with respect for the territory. The planned infrastructure, with an expected initial cost of around 60 million euros, would certainly not produce positive economic and social effects for our community. All citizens who live, work and transit in the areas adjacent to the Tiber, for years and certainly not today, have been victims of a ‘devastating’ political blindness. Regardless of the many constraints and new regulations approved after the Morandi bridge disaster in Genoa, how can one think that the only solution to the traffic problem is to build an infrastructure approximately 20 meters high supported by immense pylons made of tons of concrete armed?”
Given your requests, what would your alternative proposal be in detail?
“Encourage a project that can guarantee an alternative road system even far from the Scafa bridge itself but which allows a functional and useful connection between the 10th Municipality and the City of Fiumicino. Over the years there had been talk of a plausible connection between the Parco Leonardo or Fiera di Roma area and the town of Dragona, through an infrastructure to be built between the two territories. This solution would be optimal to free up the entire airport and city area, in particular Fiumicino, with direct roads towards the Roman municipality. Today it is enough to see the bridges renovated or built from scratch in Rome or in other territories. Maintaining a single connection route, no matter how large a bridge you want to build, certainly does not solve the traffic problem. We have experienced several times the chaos that is created due to an accident or any other reason that effectively blocks the only connection between the two territories. We need to create alternative connections to the Scafa bridge, with less impact and with evidently quicker timescales linked to their construction. The funds allocated for the mammoth work of the Scafa bridge could be allocated to these infrastructures, to be built in the hinterland, which would certainly guarantee smoother and more peaceful daily traffic management“.
What is the situation currently being experienced throughout the coast, precisely due to the lack of infrastructure suitable for city mobility?
It is clear that in particular the entire quadrant of Fiumicino is a victim of the traffic that flows daily, almost at all hours, towards Ostia, making citizens hostage to a road system that does not even allow the management of any dangers or emergency assistance in time. useful. For this reason we are absolutely not against the creation of an alternative road system as long as it is sustainable and concretely achievable. For these reasons, Solidarity Democracy-Demos continues to ask all responsible bodies, from the Lazio Region, to the Municipality of Rome and that of Fiumicino, regarding the Scafa megabridge, the cancellation of the entire project and to direct the funds to improvements on the current road network of the bridge and new bridges connecting the two territories“.
Also in light of the new mega infrastructures planned in Fiumicino, from the commercial port to the tourist port, how can this impact be harmonized with the city?
“The new tourism projects, so that they can have the least possible impact on the city, should be shared with the citizens. For this reason we have already invited the Municipal Administration to convene Public Assemblies with the residents and present through ‘models’, maps or other ways, in which the alternative road plan is explained in detail, which certainly cannot go to add up to an already evident daily chaos. I would like to remind those who today have the task of administering this city, that it was they, with an agenda registered in December 2022, who considered it fundamental that, for major works and new infrastructures relating to mobility and roads, the city was involved and discussions were opened with representatives of the various categories actually involved in these projects. As Solidarity Democracy-Demos we hope that what was requested and signed on that occasion, by the current Mayor and members of his council, can be realized today”.
Are there future initiatives planned on these issues?
“We will continue to talk among citizens and collect signatures, which began in 2019, on a motion presented by us, so that new modern road connections are created between the Municipality of Fiumicino and the X Municipality of the Municipality of Rome, in order to obtain real alternative solutions to the traffic that afflicts us every day and finally allow economic and social development of the territories involved”.
