Itinerant Council of the Piedmont Region: Update on the Tenda Tunnel

“We chose to convene the first meeting of the itinerant council in Limone Piemonte as a sign of closeness to a community that has been suffering for too many years from the consequences of a construction site, that of the Tenda Tunnel, which has had various vicissitudes, most recently the Alex storm, and accumulated delays causing serious disruptions to the economic and tourist system of the valley. As is well known, the Region has no jurisdiction over this construction site and this work, but it continues to press the company to honor its commitments and is close to the territory,” declared the President of the Piedmont Region, Alberto Cirio, who today convened the council at the Municipality of Limone Piemonte in a day of work that began with a greeting with the mayors of the area, continued with the council’s work, and then concluded with a review and an inspection of the Tenda Tunnel construction site together with the Anas commissioner, Nicola Prisco, and the Monitoring Committee.

During the morning, the council’s work focused on the budget following the Court of Auditors’ approval and the allocation of the national health fund, which has allocated 315 million euros more to Piedmont than in 2023. It was then decided that in September a working group will be set up to define the socio-health plan, which will be developed by a special mission structure to be established by a council resolution.

In the afternoon, the work focused on the Tenda Tunnel. Anas Commissioner Nicola Prisco confirmed the end of work date as November 15, with the goal of opening to traffic before winter. Prisco highlighted that, regarding the bridge, the work is progressing rapidly, and the goal is to complete it by the end of September. The construction of the 170-meter variant inside the gallery continues, for which Anas is pressing the company to meet the deadlines. The commissioner then informed the Region that the project for the second tunnel has been completed and is now under review by the intergovernmental commission.

The meeting at the Municipality was also attended by the Mayor of Limone Piemonte, Massimo Riberi, and the President of the Mountain Union, Gian Piero Dalmasso. “We thank the regional council for their attention and closeness to the community and administration of Limone Piemonte,” said Riberi and Dalmasso. “In recent months, we have requested economic support for the valley’s businesses and now ask to continue to monitor compliance with the construction deadlines, for which we hope that Anas and the company will concentrate all labor efforts because this territory cannot afford further delays that are already having serious consequences on our economic and tourist system.”

At the end of the meeting at the Municipality, the council moved to the Tenda construction site where they met with the Monitoring Committee. “We asked Anas to ensure that the company respects the delivery times,” said Cirio. “We heard about a week of work stoppage in August for holidays, and we hope this does not happen because this construction site, as we know, has already suffered many stoppages.”

The president then announced that a way has been identified to provide compensation to the territory. “In recent years, the Region has paid with its own resources for cross-border rail connections for about 3 million euros, which Anas is now willing to reimburse, at least in part: we will use those resources to compensate the commercial and tourism activities that suffer from the prolonged closure of the tunnel,” explained the president. And regarding the circulation once the tunnel is completed, he added: “We have entrusted Professor Giuseppe Ferro of the Polytechnic University of Turin with the task of studying and defining the ways in which the tunnel can be opened to two-way traffic, pending the start and completion of work in the historic gallery for which we are awaiting project approval by the intergovernmental commission and guarantees of resources from the French government, given that Italy has already ensured the economic coverage of its share.”