Strada dei Parchi is celebrating an important milestone: eight new earthquake-resistant viaducts on the A24, including between the Genzano tunnel and the L’Aquila Ovest interchange, have been completely rebuilt and reopened to traffic. This intervention is part of the anti-seismic upgrading plan for the L’Aquila Ovest – Tornimparte section, which will be completed by summer 2025.
Innovation and safety on the A24 route
These eight viaducts represent a significant step in the modernization of an infrastructure crucial to connections between Rome and L’Aquila. Built with technologies adapted to the latest earthquake-resistant regulations, the new viaducts use mixed corten steel and concrete structures, ensuring greater lightness, elasticity, and integration into the landscape. State-of-the-art seismic dissipators provide advanced protection in an area characterized by high seismicity.
Reconstruction operations, conducted in tight shifts, kept the section open to traffic at all times. Thanks to alternating management of the roadways, it was possible to complete the work without disrupting traffic.
Work in an urban context
The Rome-L’Aquila highway, inaugurated in 1969, needed upgrading to meet modern earthquake-resistant standards. In the heavily urbanized L’Aquila basin, demolitions were carried out exclusively by mechanical means to avoid the use of micro-explosive charges, which were used instead on sections further from population centers, such as near Tornimparte.
Goals achieved and next steps
Today’s opening brings the number of completed earthquake-proof viaducts to 17, including the L’Aquila West interchange ramp, reopened at Christmas 2023. Four viaducts on the Rome-bound carriageway remain to be completed, with completion expected by summer 2025.
Costantino Ivoi, CEO of Strada dei Parchi, stressed the importance of the project: “We are completing a job that has been awaited by the territory since 2012, when Parliament declared this infrastructure strategic for Civil Defense. L’Aquila, Italian Capital of Culture 2026, deserves this attention to continue on its path of rebirth after the catastrophic earthquake. Now it is essential to accelerate construction sites on the A25 as well, to ensure complete safety within certain timeframes .”
Parks Road: an ongoing commitment
Strada dei Parchi’s commitment is aimed at ensuring user safety and traffic continuity even during the works. Painstaking planning that considers both the needs of construction sites and motorists is crucial to improving a highway network that is strategic for connections between the Capital and the four Abruzzo capitals and between Italy’s two coastal ridges.
