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ROADS & MOTORWAYS
Massina -
Palermo Motorway, Sicily - Italy
Client :
Sicilian Motorways Consortium (Messina)
Services:
Preliminary and final design, environmental
impact assessment,
tender documents, works supervision
Period: 1984 - 2002
Construction Cost:
1,355,039,845
The
Project:
The
Messina-Palermo motorway, the E90, is the southernmost extension
of the
therefore the services performed by
Technital
concern the approximately 181.6 km. stretch between Messina
and Buonfornello where it joins the Catania-Palermo Motorway.
The motorway construction took place in an initial period
between 1967 and 1975, during which the sections Messina-Rocca
di Caprileone (96.6 km.) and Buonfornello-Cefalu' (17.8 km.)
were built, followed by a long pause of approximately 8 years
between 1975 and 1983 due to the block on financing to the
motorway sector. With the resumption of financing, sanctioned
by Law no. 531 of August 12, 1982, construction could resume.
Since that time the remaining sections of the motorway have
been contracted out and the final lots, in the section between
S. Stefano di Camastra and Castelbuono, are under
construction. As of today, a total of 140.3 km. of motorway
are open to traffic and construction is expected to be
completed by the end of 2002.
Despite having been constructed over different periods of
time, the motorway has always maintained the same project
standard. The design speed was established at 80 km/h in
areas of high accident risk, 100 km/h in areas of average
accident risk, and 120 km/h in level areas. The platform is
composed of two carriageways which are separated by a median
strip of variable width of no less than 3 meters.
The horizontal and vertical layout of the carriageways is
normally parallel or coplanar, save for the stretches in which
they are totally separate due to the presence of viaducts,
tunnels, or particularly steep terrain . Each carriageway has
two 3.75 m. lanes, a 2.5 m. shoulder lane and a 0.75 m. grass
verge which is flanked by a l2.50 m. ditch in sections in
cuttings. The grass verge is substituted with a 0.50 m. curb
in tunnels. The horizontal layout was studied to permit
maximum reduction of rectilinear stretches and instead has a
curved alignment which is better suited to the characteristics
of the land and also makes for safer driving. The vertical
layout foresees maximum longitudinal gradients of 4% in ascent
and 4.5% in descent. These values are reduced to 2.5% in
tunnels for short stretches, and to 1.5% in longer stretches.
In addition to the architectural structures, almost all of
which attest to a considerable design complexity, the various
ground consolidation works, retaining walls, hydraulic
crossing structures, etc., the project also foresaw lighting
systems for tunnels and interchanges, ventilation and security
systems in tunnels, and toll collection stations and toll
booths.
The original project was conceived as a product of "integrated
planning" in which environmental themes played an essential
role in making optimal project decisions. The revision of the
original project highlighted the existence of some important
problems of more recent origin which were connected with both
the geomorphologic situation of the land and the new
territorial restraints.
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