Anticipation is growing among the population of the Riviera dei Gelsomini after the news released on Friday on the probable suspension of extraordinary maintenance works on the tunnels of the “Jonio-Tirreno” main road.
Works which – it should be remembered – began last May 3rd after the head of the territorial structure Anas Francesco Caporaso had signed the order to start the works to restore the final lining and capture the percolation water of the Limina tunnel, as well as the maximum safety interventions necessary for the structural restoration of the Torbido tunnel with resolution of widespread water infiltrations.
Interventions which will last, according to the ordinance, until 10 October 2025 and which in the “Limina” tunnel are carried out at night, from 10pm to 6am, when the SS 682 is closed from the “Mammola” junction to the “Limina” junction.
After less than a month from the start, however, many had expressed doubts about the night-time closure of the main tunnel, because, as explained by the vice president of the “Jonica Holidays” consortium Maurizio Reale, a meeting had been requested with all the bodies involved (primarily the Region and Anas) to send them the requests of operators in the tourism sector which more than any other is suffering from the decline in attendance of those who do not spend their evenings in Locride because they cannot return after 10pm.
And if the requested meeting never took place, as Reale himself reported, on Friday morning it was the mayor of Siderno Mariateresa Fragomeni who relaunched and amplified the alarm of tourist operators and owners of accommodation facilities, speaking of «a situation that could become explosive» because tourist entrepreneurs «are starting to receive cancellations because it becomes complex to organize a wedding in the evening and have to return by 10pm. And when will the festivals, music festivals and patronal celebrations start? I cannot help but think of the posters of events organized with so much effort by fellow mayors, by the Pro Loco and by all those entrepreneurial or voluntary activities that will suffer a negative impact due to the inability to plan and the underestimation on the part of who organized these works, of the consequences (also on an economic level) of these closures”.
She added that «the Region, together with Anas, has announced the famous works for the second barrel, which would be very useful to overcome the inconveniences; but not only, to date, there is absolutely no talk of this alternative route, but above all the necessary economic coverage has not been included in the project hypothesis. Thus we play on the shoulders of a territory that has many problems and does not deserve to be deluded once again by electoral promises and various enchantments.”
And if that of the “second barrel” seems, to date, only a planning hypothesis, a few hours later the regional council, through the mouth of the councilor Giovanni Calabrese, announced that the night works on the Limina will almost certainly be suspended in the maximum period tourist influx, i.e. between 2 and 26 August. Therefore, while waiting for the formalization of what Calabrese defined as “agreements already made” between Anas and the Citadel, the mayor of Siderno yesterday via social media spoke of a “first step”, adding: “We note it with satisfaction, but we still ask for certainties on the design of the second barrel and constant listening to the territory”.