Interruptions and delays, the great traffic jam of road works

Works started in October 2019, suspended after two months. Reason: "Waiting for electricity connection". Since then, everything has been at a standstill at the construction site on State Road 293 of Giba, where the lighting systems of the tunnel at kilometer 40,600 were to be built for 531,000 euros. In cases like this there is to be hoped for an oversight in the Anas files which report the progress (or stalemate) of the works on the Sardinian roads under its jurisdiction. But the update, we read, is guaranteed until August 9th.

Almost a billion

The official tables say that there are 95 works in progress throughout Sardinia. Of these, 81 are maintenance interventions, for a total investment of 301.42 million. However, five construction sites are still, marked as "suspended" or "in the process of restarting": they are worth just under 18 million. The chapter dedicated to new works is more substantial: there are 14 of them, involving the main expressways, and the contracts are worth 670.44 million. None are declared "blocked" or "pending". Even if going into detail it turns out that the item "late" is not there. While Anas currently manages just under 972 million euros in construction sites.

The suspensions

In addition to the Giba tunnel, another work in the Sulcis Iglesiente appears in the list of official suspensions: the "urgent" resurfacing of the Statale 126 road has been frozen since May last year due to "interference with a work of art at kilometer 41, 5 of 196". Further west, the first 70 kilometers of the Carlo Felice: with half a million it was necessary to fix the expansion joints of bridges and viaducts. The workers had started last February to stop in June, at 55%. The cause: "Interference with another company". On the eastern side, on the other hand, the asphalt had to be redone between kilometers 86 and 106 and between 132 and 223. Intervention worth 4.5 million. The suspension results from "adverse weather conditions for conglomerate drafting": the stop of the company dates back to 11 November 2022, then nothing. Last official block, in the Chighizzu tunnels in Sassari: the construction site for the modernization of the technological systems has been stopped since October but Anas, in June, announced that it had completed the work.

Henry Fresu