Everyone, in the last twenty years, will have wondered why in front of the Trastevere station there is an unfinished wall that hides a mysterious artefact. After 17 years, probably no one wonders this anymore because the degradation of that corner of Rome has been metabolized together with many others. The only ones experiencing enormous discomfort first-hand are the residents of via Ettore Rolli, via degli Orti di Cesare and via Portuense who define themselves as “hostages” of the perennial construction site (they even have a Facebook page with this name).
Here an underground car park with 220 spaces was planned, a new area for the local market and a small garden (the so-called Parco Gaetanaccio). A private company, Parkroi, was awarded the concession and committed to completing all the works by 2011 but a very long dispute between the private company and the Municipality blocked everything. Many obstacles have arisen over the years, including the discovery of an aquifer, a seizure of the construction site by the local health authority and numerous others that there is no need to go over again now. Better to start with the most recent news, the ones that perhaps give residents a little hope.
In fact, in 2023 the legal dispute was closed with a ruling in favor of Parkroi. The judge, essentially, ruled that Capitoline Hill must put the concessionaire back in a position to restart the construction site. But things are not that simple because there are different interpretations of the sentence between the Municipality and the builder. In October 2023, public institutions and Parkroi carried out an inspection verifying that around 80% of the rough works were completed and therefore attention now shifts to the garden to be created next to the car park and its future maintenance. The contract stipulates that it will be looked after by the dealer for 15 years but the times have slipped and everything must be called into question.
Then there is the question of the market: the project involves the construction of 25 stalls but there is controversy over this too as well as over the payment of further concession charges (around 550 thousand euros) which the private company does not believe it should pay while the Municipality claims they serve to complete the market.
Since the interest is to finish the works and allow citizens to return to their normal lives, the Municipality has no preclusion from discussing these 550 thousand euros with Parkroi because if a new dispute were to start it is likely that the whole would be postponed for another 5 or 10 years. Therefore the state of the art is as follows: the Municipality must give the private sector the permits to resume its activity and Parkroi must complete the works foreseen in the agreement (market, garden and its maintenance). Will they be able to reach an agreement and continue? For now it is not possible to answer this question, especially since according to the residents’ committee the Gaetanaccio garden is not feasible as it would prevent access to the garages given that the project envisages it where you now enter the garage.
Here is the conditions in which the inhabitants of via Portuense and via Orti di Cesare have been living for 17 years. Access to the buildings is reduced to a crawl. Impossible to unload goods, move or simply walk and see the city. Here there are only yellow sheets and decay.
The inhabitants pay too high a price for a badly done project for which they are not to blame. The time has come for everyone to roll up their sleeves to find a definitive solution.
