UPPER GARDA. Now there is only Cristina Santi to fiercely defend the very large cantilevered brackets of the Garda Cycle Route project. Even Franceschino Risatti he is absolutely against it, “too dangerous”, he who was the first to build them, in what so far is the only existing stretch of terraced cycle path, from Limone to the border with Trentino, a very narrow strip, insufficient to allow pedestrians and cyclists and under the sword of Damocles of the rocky slope.
Only Renato Girardi, mayor of Ledro (his municipality has a stretch of Lake Garda), politically close to the governor Maurizio Fugatti, as well as Santi, he believes that the Province’s project is going well; for the rest from Arco to Brenzone, from Tremosine to Nago Torbole it’s a chorus of no. Rather tunnels for cycle paths or scheduled service boats for bicycles.
Paolo Formaggioni, new mayor of Brenzone: «I have to meet with the mayors of Malcesine and Nago Torbole to discuss the Torbole-Malcesine stretch. I want a bike boat service. A cantilevered runway would be really bad. The connection via lake, with public or private navigation, would also be less expensive. The priority instead would be to build a car tunnel in the Tempesta area.”
Giuseppe Benamati, newly elected mayor of Malcesine, he says he wants to study the projects before expressing his opinion. Gianni Morandi, mayor of Nago Torbole, is clearly against the walkway along the western and eastern coasts.
«I want safety for the Gardesana state road between Malcesine and Torbole. For the cycle path, however, a new solution must be studied; I have already spoken out against the cantilever section under construction in Navene. I don’t set economic limits but landscape ones: I say no to a cycle path with large metal structures protruding, let’s imagine the cliffs of Corno di Bo’. There are alternative solutions; sure, they cost money, but we need new galleries, tunnels where there is both the road and the cycle path; this would be the real project to carry forward. In 2008, when people started talking about Ciclovia, they thought of a cantilevered track; today’s projects are the result of the ideas of that time. I hope that now the sensitivity is different and that new solutions are thought of.”
The municipal council of Arco, with resolution of 29 April della protruding cycle path 2024 approved an agenda with which it commits the mayor Alessandro Betta «to take a position with the Province of Trento to re-evaluate the design of the work, also evaluating intermodality among the hypotheses, as foreseen by the documents ministerial and, in any case, re-evaluating the cantilevered walkway sections, to preserve landscape integrity and guarantee acceptable safety standards”.
The mayor of Riva, Cristina Santi, instead supports the Province’s plan for the stretch between Riva and Limone, a part of which is also under construction: «We have the reassurance of our provincial technicians on the maximum possible safety and we have the utmost confidence in them»; on the landscape aspect «we asked for the most harmonious environmental impact possible»; finally Santi does not consider possible alternatives, either the cycle path in the tunnel or the connection via lake. «The cycle path must be built, also to remove cyclists from Gardesana».
For the mayor of Ledro, Renato Girardi, the overhanging section of the track is short and I like the project launched by the Province. The solutions, whether cantilevered or in tunnels, are always good. There are geologists who have to tell what to do. The aesthetics are fine for me in any case but the track must be safe.”
Franceschino Risatti, who with his administration had built the first section of the Garda cycle path projecting from Limone to the border with Trentino, now, after the massive landslides of recent months, declared himself in favor of alternatives to the protruding track: «We must be honest, the section between Limone and Gargnano – he declared to L’Adige on 13 June – is very bad, we must admit this: there are 7 or 8 kilometers where you cannot actually making the track cantilevered would be risky; and this is coming from someone who is pushing for the cycle path. We need to find an internal alternative in the tunnel or even upstream. There is too much danger and other solutions must be sought. Too bad because we had the money ready. If we go maybe ten kilometers inside the cycle path can become even more beautiful. We must try to listen to everyone and do the most positive things possible.”
Risatti is also to enhance boat trips, «both the fast catamarans which could constitute a valid possibility for commuters, reducing traffic on the Gardesana by 30%, and for the transport of bicycles».
Battista Girardi, newly reconfirmed mayor of Tremosine, was the first to raise the problem of the protruding cycle path on the lake; after the scary landslide of December 16, 2023, the topic of safety is at the top of his mind. For him the solution is the shuttle with the Navigarda «I’ve been saying this for two years – he declared to L’Adige on 7 January 2024 – the crags from Gargnano to Riva continue to unload in an exceptional way.
I am surprised that administrators who have the responsibility of planning and having this intervention financed do not realize the risk scenario that has been created in recent years. I understand that it is difficult to take a step back at a political level when something has been guaranteed, but if people’s safety is involved”. of Garda.
