"I've been saying it for a while now: the project didn't convince me, citizens will now judge after the reopening of the first section". On the day of the reopening of Via Roma, almost two years after the start of construction , Mayor Massimo Zedda lashes out against the redevelopment project for the area. "We need to understand that the initial project was different, this one has been modified. There was talk of a forest that isn't there, of a meadow that isn't there: if I have to express my very personal opinion, I would have used 8-10 million euros to remove and restore the granite in a different way. I wouldn't have done it: the project we had imagined was the restoration of the central promenade, because the 10 million allocated were those defined in my second term".
A redevelopment project that, according to the mayor, has also caused problems for the Truzzu administration that started the construction site: «I'm happy if the citizens like it. But it doesn't seem to me to have brought much luck to the center-right: there has never been a defeat of this level in the history of administrative elections ». Also under accusation are the traffic flow and the reduction of the road on the portico side: « Imagine the bottleneck that would be created with two lanes, one for each direction », underlines Zedda. «Just one car in double row and it creates traffic all the way to Viale Diaz: we will evaluate all these aspects, in agreement with shopkeepers and residents. For now the traffic flow is temporary, waiting for the second lot. The other problem was the identification of the loading and unloading stalls: now we will give them more breathing space».
On the timing for completing the second lot, Zedda does not want to commit himself, given that the first section has already been delayed by a year: « I will not give any more timescales, we will see based on the problems related to the archaeological finds . The company has almost reached Rinascente and they have moved forward with the work, in order to move on to the road works. On paper we should have already completed the work». Also because the possibility of having to stop is high: «Near Rinascente there are the findings of the historic walls, which ran on the side of Viale Regina Margherita. A part is visible, both inside the Scala di Ferro and at the Regina Margherita hotel. The other portion of the wall ran in correspondence with Largo Carlo Felice: we already have evidence of archaeological finds, so that side is even more complex than the first section».
The reopening is currently only for residents and merchants , with the first stretch pedestrianized . "We are thinking about the traffic plan, because there was no idea," Zedda attacks. "The subway will pass through the bus lane, which does not allow, being a train, a mixed route. We are trying to obtain authorization from the ministry so that at least in the stretch of Via Roma buses can pass with the subway, otherwise there would be a physical barrier that would prevent the view of the sea."
The mayor doesn’t even like the choice to modernise the area: “The historic benches have been eliminated,” he points out. “ I have nothing to say about the contemporary interventions, but in historic places, materials and objects in harmony with the historic centre should be preserved .” And Zedda doesn’t like the new Piazza Matteotti either: “It was a sort of enclosed botanical garden, now it has been created in a contemporary way, distorting the design of the square. You can’t even get a trolley on the sidewalks.”
(Unioneonline/r.sp.)