Pedemontana Lombarda Highway - Lot 1 (Italy)

The Pedemontana highway project will increase the accessibility in the west-east direction across the central section of the Po river plain, by-passing the Milan metropolitan area at its north side, between Milan and Varese, Como and Bergamo, at foot of Italian Alps.

The project awarded to Technital and divided into 1st Lot and 2nd Lot includes (main axis, without interchange ramps): 67 km of new highway, the Varese and Como motorway links 20 km, local road connections 70 km.

The contract for the 1st part of the project includes Section A (14.6 km main axis), the 1st lot of the Varese Tangenziale (4.8 km) and the 1st lot of the Como Tangenziale (2.4 km). A multi-lane free flow toll system will be installed.

The design speed of the new highway is 140 km/h (120 km/h for the Varese and Como motorway links). The highway cross section is of 2 carriageways, each with two lanes plus an emergency lane.

In this 1st part of the project Technital was in charge of the general coordination of the entire design (civil works, equipment & environmental works, land expropriation) and carried out the civil works design (without tunnel structures) for Section A and local road connections (18 km additional length) 

Along Section A four two-level interchanges are located, with existing highways Milano-Varese (west side) and Milano-Como-Chiasso (east side) and with local roads. 

Section A has the following characteristics with respect to ground level: Cutting 5..5 km / Embankment 5.2 km / Tunnel 3.4 km (natural 0.4 km artificial 3.0 km) / Viaduct & bridges 0.3 km.

Olona viaduct is the main structure: 234 m long, 4 spans 55+62+62+55 m, 2 steel beams 2.8 m height.

Along Section A, a maintenance centre has been located, provided by winter emergency intervention facilities, as well as a service station with recreational and accommodation facilities (hotel, restaurant).

The artificial tunnels will be realised mainly by means of prefabricated structure, to save construction time.

The drainage system has been designed with the aim of preventing rain water or spilt polluted water from staying on the road pavement. Works include continuous collecting pipes on both sides of carriageway and water treatment tanks, as well as laminating pools and lateral canals, to avoid any increase of the local river peak flows.

Single span crossovers will maintain the continuity of the interrupted local roads.

Tunnel safety has been assured by fire protection equipment as well as emergency, signalling, TV, etc.