The new railway underpass will emerge opposite the future entrance to the vegetable market which will connect Via Rovelli with the new Via Lunga and the provincial road system, a public work carried by the train to Orio, which RFI is building. The new road axis will become the main access to the historic market square that sells fruit and vegetables throughout the province, with an average of 80 trucks per day. Heavy vehicles now pass through Via Borgo Palazzo «even if the city doesn’t notice, because these operations take place from midnight to three in the morning» explains Giacomo Salvi, president of Bergamo Mercati.
The company is ready to take off the project to expand the vegetable market (from the current 45 thousand square meters to 70 thousand), an investment of approximately 17 million euros divided into two phases. The first, with completion of the works by 2026, with the works serving wholesalers and the second for the redevelopment of the management and commercial building, with the creation of a new square and small shops.
Bergamo Mercati (a company owned by the Municipality of Bergamo, with a minority share of wholesalers and representatives of the agricultural world) aims to open the construction site between October and November. Not only larger and repurposed spaces, but also a new logistics. «A fundamental aspect – says President Salvi –. Thanks to the new railway underpass, these vehicles will enter from via Rovelli. Via Borgo Palazzo will thus be relieved of heavy logistics that will be diverted to the south. In general, the new entrance to the fruit and vegetable market, also for street vendors and greengrocers, will be moved to via Rovelli. It will therefore be safer and more functional».
The new railway line between Bergamo and Orio al Serio airport includes the closure of the level crossing on Via Pizzo Recastello and a new underpass on Via Rovelli, with the redesign of Via Lunga and a connection to the city’s ring road system. The underpass will be grafted onto a system of four roundabouts around the new perimeter of the fruit and vegetable market. Via Rovelli will be “straightened” (cutting the current gymkhana), a revision of the route that will allow the market to recover space. But this will only be possible when the PGT, with the new urban planning provisions, is officially published in the bulletin of the Lombardy Region. Another operation envisaged by the new plan is the relocation of the Lunapark that currently occupies the square on which the fruit and vegetable market will expand. It is the PGT that identifies the new location, in a green area on the other side of Via Rovelli, a provision contested by the private individual with an appeal to the TAR (the Coffari family, already in litigation with the Municipality for the expropriation of the Fair).
«The aim is to find traffic solutions and redesign parking areas that improve accessibility to the entire area»
However, the road is clear and the mayor Elena Carnevali recognizes the value of the project to expand the vegetable market: «With the approval of the PGT, the realization of the expansion of the structure to support economic activities, citizens and companies in the sector, with the desire to also find road solutions and the redesign of parking areas that improve the accessibility of the entire area”.
The project was approved by the previous Council. And as its realization approaches, former mayor Giorgio Gori comments: «It is one of the most significant operations in this part of the city, touched by a great work that the Pnrr brought with it, the train to Orio. The fruit and vegetable market is renewed and responds in a concrete and modern way to entrepreneurs and users».
