Autostrade of Italy
- "Autostrada" redirects here. For roads called "Autostrada" in other countries, see Roads and expressways in Romania, Roads and expressways in Poland
The Autostrada is the Italian national system of motorways. The total length of the system is about 6,400 km. In North and Central Italy this is mainly as tollways, with the biggest portion in concession to the Atlantia group which operates some 3,408 km. Other operators include ASTM and ATP in the north-west, Serenissima and Autovie Venete in the north-east, SALT and Autocisa in the center, all under the control of the state-owned ANAS.
History
Italy was the first country in the world to start building motorways, i.e., fast roads, reserved for motor vehicles. The "Milano-Laghi" motorway (connecting Milan to Varese) was, in fact, devised by Piero Puricelli, a civil engineer and entrepreneur, who received the first authorizations to build a "public utility" fast road in 1921, and completed the construction (back then one lane per direction was enough) between 1924 and 1926. By the end of the 1920s, over 4,000 kilometers of multi-lane motorways were constructed throughout Italy, linking many cities and rural towns to one another. The motorways were touted by Benito Mussolini in 1930 as one of the great achievements of his regime and the proof of its commitment to progress and modernization, whereas the original idea was thought of earlier. Lore has that the US government conceived an Interstate Highway System, to supplant the previous US roads network, when officials visited the Italian motorways in the late 1930s.
Speed
Italy's autostrade have the standard speed limit of 130 km/h (81 mph) for cars. Limits for other vehicles (or for cases of foul weather/low visibility) are lower. There are legal provisions enabling the operators to set the limit to 150 km/h (93 mph) on their concessions on a voluntary basis, only if some conditions are met: three lanes in each direction, and a working SICVE (also called Safety Tutor) speed camera system.
List of current motorways
- A1 Milan - Naples (known as "Autostrada del Sole", Motorway of the Sun, or "AutoSole" for short)
- (A2 designation has been retired - formerly Rome - Naples, now part of A1)
- A3 Naples - Salerno - Reggio Calabria
- A4 Turin - Trieste (the Brescia-Venice segment known as "Serenissima", The Most Serene, for the name of the ancient Venetian republic)
- A5 Turin - Aosta - Monte Bianco (connecting to France through Mont Blanc Tunnel; known as "Autostrada della Valle d'Aosta", Motorway of Aosta Valley)
- A6 Turin - Savona (known as "Verdemare", The Seagreen)
- A7 Milan - Genoa (known as "Serravalle")
- A8 Varese - Milan (known as "Autostrada dei Laghi", Motorway of the Lakes, or "AutoLaghi" for short)
- A9 Lainate - Como - Chiasso (connecting to Switzerland; part of "Autostrada dei Laghi")
- A10 Genoa - Ventimiglia (connecting to France; known as "Autostrada dei Fiori", Motorway of the Flowers)
- A11 Florence - Pisa Nord (known as "Firenze-Mare", Florence-Sea)
- A12 Genoa - Rosignano Marittimo / Civitavecchia - Rome (known as "Autostrada Azzurra", Blue Motorway), composed of two unconnected parts; the track between Rosignano and Civitavecchia is served by Strada Statale 1 "via Aurelia"
- A13 Padova - Bologna
- A14 Bologna - Taranto (known as "Autostrada Adriatica", Adriatic Motorway)
- A15 Parma - La Spezia (known as "Autocamionale della Cisa", Motor-and-truckway of the Cisa Pass)
- A16 Naples - Canosa (known as "Autostrada dei Due Mari", Motorway of the Two Seas)
- (A17 designation has been retired)
- A18 Messina - Catania / Syracuse - Rosolini
- A19 Palermo - Catania
- A20 Messina - Palermo
- A21 Turin - Piacenza - Brescia (known as "Autostrada dei Vini", Motorway of the Wines)
- A22 Modena - Brennero (connecting to Austria; known as "Autostrada del Brennero" or "AutoBrennero" for short)
- A23 Palmanova - Tarvisio (connecting to Austria; known as "Autostrada Alpe-Adria", Motorway of Alps-Adria)
- A24 Rome - L'Aquila - Teramo (known as "Autostrada dei Parchi", Motorway of the Parks)
- A25 Pescara - Torano
- A26 Genoa (Voltri) - Gravellona Toce (known as "Autostrada dei Trafori", Motorway of the Tunnels)
- A27 Venice - Belluno (known as "Autostrada d'Alemagna", Motorway of Germany)
- A28 Conegliano - Portogruaro
- A29 Palermo - Mazara del Vallo/Trapani (known as "Autostrada del Sale", Motorway of salt)
- A30 Caserta - Salerno
- A31 Piovene Rocchette - Vicenza (known as "Autostrada della Val d'Astico", Motorway of Astico Valley)
- A32 Turin - Bardonecchia (connecting to France via Fréjus Road Tunnel; known as "Autostrada del Frejus", Motorway of the Frejus)
- A33 Asti - Cuneo (under construction, but partly opened)
- A53 Raccordo Bereguardo-Pavia (connection between Pavia and motorway A7)
- A91 Roma - Fiumicino Aeroporto
Until 1990, the designation A1 only referred to the Milan-Rome segment of the current A1, the Rome-Naples segment was known as A2. After a direct connection was built bypassing Rome, the designation A2 was retired and now the A1 designation refers to the whole route. The leftover connections to the "Grande Raccordo Anulare" (Great Ring Road, around Rome) were designated as raccordi (see later). Until 1973, the designation A17 referred to the current A16, and the segment Canosa-Bari of the current A14.
List of tangenziali (bypass roads around big cities)
This is a list of tangenziali classified as autostrada.
- A50 Tangenziale Ovest di Milano (west bypass road, Milan)
- A51 Tangenziale Est di Milano (east bypass road, Milan)
- A52 Tangenziale Nord di Milano (north bypass road, Milan)
- A54 Tangenziale di Pavia
- A55 Tangenziale Nord di Torino e Tangenziale Sud di Torino (north and south bypass roads, Turin)
- A56 Tangenziale di Napoli
- A57 Tangenziale di Venezia
- A90 Grande Raccordo Anulare di Roma (Great Ring Road of Rome)
- RA1 Tangenziale di Bologna
- RA15 Tangenziale di Catania (Catania's Ring Road West)
List of bretelle and raccordi autostradali
Some autostrade are called bretelle, diramazioni or raccordi because they are short and because they have few exit.
Bretelle, diramazioni or raccordi are generally connections between two motorways or connections between motorways and important cities without a motorway.
They can have the same number (sometimes with the suffix dir) of one of the two autostrade linked or a combination of the numbers of the two autostrade linked or the number of the main autostrada.
Trafori (T)
Important alpine tunnels (Template:It trafori) are identified by the capital letter "T" followed by a single digit number. Currently there are only three T-classified tunnels: Mont Blanc Tunnel (T1), Great St Bernard Tunnel (T2) and Frejus Road Tunnel (T4). All these tunnels, that cross the borderline between Italy and France (T1, T4) or Switzerland (T2), are treated as motorways (green signage, control of access, and so on) although they are not proper motorways. The code T3 was once assigned to the Bargagli-Ferriere Tunnel, in Ligurian Appennines, before it was reclassified as SP 226.
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Traforo del Monte Bianco |
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Traforo del Gran San Bernardo |
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Traforo del Frejus |
Raccordi autostradali (RA)
RA stands for Raccordo autostradale (translated as "motorway connection"). A so-called raccordo autostradale is a relatively short spur route that connects an autostrada to a nearby city or touristic resort that is not directly served by the motorway. These spurs are owned and managed by ANAS (with some exceptions, such as RA7 that became A53 when assigned to a private company for maintenance). Some spurs are toll-free motorways (type-A), but most of them are type-B or type-C roads. By the way all RA have separate carriageways with two lane for each direction but generally without emergency lane .
| Symbol | Number | |
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RA1 | A1 - A13 - A14 |
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RA2 | A3 - Avellino |
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RA3 | A1 - Siena |
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RA4 | A3 - Reggio Calabria - SS106 |
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RA5 | A3 - Potenza |
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RA6 | A1 - Perugia |
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A53 (o RA7) | A7 - Tangenziale di Pavia |
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RA8 | A13 - Ferrara - Porto Garibaldi |
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RA9 | A16 - Benevento |
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RA10 | Torino - A55 - Aeroporto di Caselle |
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RA11 | Ascoli - A14 - Porto d'Ascoli |
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RA12 | A25 - Chieti - A14 - Pescara |
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RA13 | A4 - SS202 |
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RA14 | RA13 - Fernetti (confine di stato) |
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RA15 | A18 - A19 - Aut. CT-SR |
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RA16 | A28 - SS13 |
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RA17 | A4 - Gorizia |
Strade extraurbane principali
Type B highway (or strada extraurbana principale), commonly but unofficially known as superstrada (Italian equivalent for expressway), is a divided highway with at least two lanes for each direction, paved shoulder on the right, no cross-traffic and no at-grade intersections. Access restrictions on such highways are exactly the same of autostrade, as well as signage at the beginning and the end of the highway (with the only difference being the background color, blue instead of green). General speed limit on strade extraurbane principali is 110 km/h. Strade extraurbane principali are not tolled. All strade extraurbane principali are owned and managed by ANAS (that is under the direct control of Italian government) or by the regions.
See also
External links
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