The urban area of the capital will have a third motorway junction. The construction of the new access to the A2 motorway in Settimo is nearing completion, a couple of kilometers further north than the current one located in Rende. The tender was completed in July, there is a winner and the contract must be signed. Work will begin between the end of the year and the beginning of the new one. Optimism filters from the Municipality of Rende, even if the process is obviously managed by Anas. The Municipality, however, is responsible for the construction of the internal infrastructures that will link the exit to the University of Calabria and the new hospital on one side, and on the other to the Santa Maria di Settimo di Montalto railway station. In addition to the rest of the road system, it bears exponentially growing traffic every day, in light of the increase in the population and therefore in the number of motorists who directly or indirectly gravitate towards the city’s arteries. Just check, every day, the increasingly long and therefore dangerous queues that also extend along the A2 route due to traffic jams entering the city, both arriving from the north and the south. Especially in the hottest hours, they are a danger as well as an enormous inconvenience.
How much do they cost
Based on what has transpired, at least 18 million euros should be needed for the new junction, and the immediately associated road network. While 6.3 million, a little more, a little less, will be used for the internal road system connecting with the University of Calabria area, and 7 instead for the backbone that will lead to the Santa Maria railway station which should become a crucial hub of the railway line on the journey between the Ionian and Tyrrhenian coasts. As regards the route to the university, the Municipality already has the necessary money in hand. While he is waiting for it regarding the other mega construction site that will have to build the backbone direct to the railway yard. However, we will proceed, and in the shortest time possible.
What will happen
The new Rende junction to the north will have a crucial role in regulating traffic entering the city, as well as giving breathing space to internal roads, starting with Via Marconi currently blocked by both traffic towards the A2 and the roads towards Unical and the connection with State Road 107 and therefore the Tyrrhenian coast. Without forgetting the heavy vehicles leaving the industrial area. In the new road system, from the junction and towards all directions, a crucial role will be played by the vialone Francesco and Carolina Principe.
In the Town Hall we are wondering about the future of the current Rendese junction, once Cosenza north, because it is absolutely not a given that it will remain alive considering that a couple of kilometers later, or before, it depends, there will be another one. Mayor Sandro Principe is personally following, with extreme attention, the case which affects not only the present of city life, but also its future from a long-term perspective. Because a possible transfer of the junction, with the construction of the new one and therefore the cancellation of the current one, would also have an important impact on the entrepreneurial activities currently gravitating in the area of the exit from the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway route. But this, at least for now, is another story…
