New start for Pedemontana

“The procedures to finance the Pedemontana motorway have restarted, and in the next few hours, the Finance Minister is going to sign a decree approving the additional bill, and thereby complete the last detail for continuation of the work, and remove for good, the chance of any additional hold-ups.” The President of the Lombardy Region, Roberto Formigoni, and the Councillor for Mobility and Infrastructure, Raffaele Cattaneo announced the approval of the additional bill implementing the Economic and Financial Plan signed on 1 August 2007 by “Concessioni Autostradali Lombarde” (a motorway concession company) and the company “Società Autostrada Pedemontana Lombarda”. The danger that was feared when the construction site for the Varese bypass was inaugurated by Councillor Cattaneo, has been averted. The Pedemontana will not have any problems in continuing the work, and will not suffer any delays.

“After some uncertainties and difficulties during the last few days, our voice has been heard,” Formigoni and Cattaneo explained. “Today, thanks to the decisive action of our Government and Prime Minister Berlusconi, to the very positive cooperation with the Ministry of Infrastructure, to the direct interest shown by the majority forces, and, above all, to the work of the Lombardy Parliamentary groups in Rome, led by the Senator Mario Mantovani, who is the new coordinator of the centre-right, governing party, PDL, in Lombardy, the Finance Ministry has said that it has overcome the doubts and resistance, and that it will sign the inter-ministerial decree which approves the additional bill.”

“The political action of the PDL has once more proved to be decisive in overcoming this difficulty,”  Formigoni and Cattaneo added. “Now we can continue quickly, to complete this work, the Pedemontana motorway, which is of strategic importance for the Lombardy Region, by 2014. Particular thanks go to everyone that made this result possible.”

In response to the enthusiasm of the PDL, Daniele Marantelli, the MP of the centre-left opposition party, in Varese, said, “At Carnival time, Formigoni and Councillor Cattaneo clearly want to have some fun, too. After the centre-left had funded the Pedemontana motorway, in 2006, and realised the first example in Italy of infrastructural federalism, the Berlusconi government, with negligent delay, has done the bare minimum to avert any additional stoppages in the work on the Pedemontana. I wish that, instead of getting carried away with undue celebrations, the PDL and Northern League, thanks also to the considerable support of the people responsible, would decide to fund the other bypasses in Varese and Como, which constitute an integral part of the Lombard Pedemontana motorway system.”