Porta Milano, Don Bosco, Chiesanuova and Lamarmora are the neighborhoods of Brescia that from 2025 will host four new “environmental islands”an evolution of the «zone 30» designed to improve the home-school route and the liveability of neighborhoods, making them safer and more sustainable. The heart of the project is the Don Bosco neighborhood, for which a redevelopment strategy has recently started which, after the recent inauguration of Spazio Lampo, will give the area a new multifunctional school and cultural center by 2027, the Don Bosco Community Hub.
The interventions
The environmental islands include cycle paths, pedestrian paths, a 30 km/h speed limit for cars and tactical urban planning to protect school space around the bells: There will be 48 traffic and liveability interventions distributed across the four zones (divided between 23 entrance gates to the “30 zones”, 22 safety interventions at road junctions and 3 depaving projects in favour of urban greenery). Jobs – after the feasibility approval arrived in September 2023 and after the executive project approval arrived in June 2024 – will start in 2025after having identified the executive firms through a call for tenders.
The four districts were directly involved: from the councils the municipal administration has collected the critical issues and problems (such as the numerous road accidents), reasoning on the possible solutions and modifying them during the project. Project that, specifically, falls within the Sustainable Urban Development Strategy Sus “The school at the center of the future” and that has received 1,850,000 euros from the regional Sus tender with European funds. To reach the 2,350,000 euros foreseen for the works, the Municipality will then use 500 thousand euros of its own resources.
Satisfaction
The presidents of the neighborhood councils involved they say they are satisfied: their requests, they say, have been accepted; they felt listened to by the Municipality; and they are certain that residents will not complain about the inconveniences during the execution, given the final objective. As Paolo Campi, president of the Porta Milano neighborhood council, emphasizes, «the project restores liveability to neighborhoods with increasing traffic and the green urbanization works are even more appreciable. The neighborhoods are lived in by the elderly and young who need to find that context that traffic tends to distort».
