Lack of service areas and refreshment points on the A20 Messina-Palermo motorway. It is the topic of a question presented by the Honorable Messina Alessandro De Leo to the Presidency of the Region and toDepartment of Infrastructure. The request of the component of the Mixed group at Ars is an urgent solution given the current presence of only two service areas in the busy thoroughfare.
«Messina and Palermo are connected via the A20 motorway managed by the Consortium for Sicilian Motorways (Cas). The A20 – explains De Leo – extends for 183 kilometersfrom the Messina Sud Tremestieri barrier to the Buonfornello barrier, the point at which it joins the A19 Catania-Palermo and in this stretch, in the Messina-Palermo direction, they are only found three areas intended for refueling and refreshment of travellers. Today, following a fire which made one of the three areas present (Tindari Nord) non-operational – continues the Honorable Member – there are only two service areas that are distant from each other 170 kilometersand precisely the service station called Divieto Nord falling within the territory of Villafranca Tirrena and Caracoli Nord (A19), falling in the territory of Termini Imerese (in the Palermo area). Although none are in force in our country rule that determines what the maximum distance between the service areaswe witness one national average of 29 kilometers away among the areas present on Italian motorways”.
De Leo highlights how at the moment «the distance between service areas in the trade Messina-Palermorepresents in fact a unique at a national level“, with inconveniences that “have repercussions on the quality of the tripoffering those traveling on the motorway a service not up to national standards and Europeans.” The parliamentarian calls back the “exponential” increase in vehicular flows and therefore anthropic which will be determined by summer seasonthousands of travelers moving on a highway that counts on only two service areas. Hence the request to the regional government to intervene and the invitation to the CAS to deal with the matter quickly: «It’s one toll road and the scarcity of service areas is not attributable to closure of Tindari Nord onlysince even if the latter were in activity – De Leo points out – the distance would still be considerable (130 kilometers). The tenders for the areas now abandoned are gone deserts and that the CAS has evaluated the opportunity to create a subsidiary company for the management of the areas in order to make up for the disservices».
For DeLeo the current situation «it is not in line with current standards present on national and European motorways, but above all it is the cause of disservices to residents and tourists, helping to cause a damage to the image of the Sicily Region. The Region and the Sicilian Motorways Consortium clarify – adds the Honorable Member – to protect the users of the A20. We want to know – he concludes – whether the solution feared by the Consortium regarding the creation of a subsidiary company or the direct management of the service areas is the optimal solution and whether it is economically sustainable and what the timeframe is for the definitive resolution.”
