Abstract
VENTO is a territorial project threading its way through the cycling–pedestrian infrastructure that will run along the banks of the river Po from VENice to Turin [TOrino]. The project has been conceived at Politecnico di Milano to propose a concrete and viable development option in response to the fragile situations of the inner areas around Italy’s largest river valley. The project defines a new methodology to manage complex territorial governance plans, which concomitantly address both the vast and local scale. The scope of the paper is to describe the methodology developed by the research team by dividing the process into three phases: ideation, taking charge and implementation. The latter is still in progress. The plan, which has also been carried out with ongoing and constant cultural work targeting multiple subjects—spanning local, regional and central institutions, national and local associations, and citizens—was developed with a parallel communication project as important as the infrastructural project. Indeed, it is an intrinsic part of the methodology perfected with VENTO.
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Notes
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With the exception of the Trento Provincial Administration, where the overall network of suburban cycling-pedestrian paths was ca. 200 km in 2011 and generated profits of ca. 86 million €.
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The length of the cycling route established by the 2012 feasibility study conducted by the Politecnico was 679 km. During the subsequent technical and economic feasibility planning phase (2018–2019), the length was increased to 700 km after several variants resulting from more detailed technical evaluations and some local requests that were accepted.
- 4.
For more than 50% of its length the VENTO cycling route runs along the main bank of the river Po. The bank is a hydraulic infrastructure with variable height from 2 m to over 10 m. A natural balcony on the surrounding landscape that could also ensure the safety of cyclists. Indeed, one of the project’s goals is to make the bank’s ridge accessible only to cyclists and to authorized vehicles.
- 5.
Inner Areas are scarcely accessible territories, which are far from the main urban centres and lacking in essential services (school, healthcare, railway transport) within a certain distance. In Italy, interest in these marginal sites was reawakened starting from 2014 with the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI), which classifies ca. 60% of the national territory as ‘inner area’ (UVAL 2014).
- 6.
The feasibility study is the first document that shows the actual possibility of implementing project VENTO. According to Italian technical regulations, the subsequent planning phases include: the technical and economic feasibility project, the final project and the executive one, which can be mutually combined also with the project’s implementation.
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Eurovelo is a large European network of more than 70,000 km of cycling tourism paths. In Italy, a considerable part of Eurovelo path no. 8 corresponded to cycling route VENTO, which was, in turn, included in Bicitalia path no. 2, the network of itineraries and cycling tourism routes defined by the Italian Federation of Bicycle Friends. Project VENTO has partly reviewed the original route of Bicitalia 2, confirming its technical feasibility.
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Sailing along the river Po can be experienced for more than half of its route: from Pavia to the estuary. The service is offered by few private operators who, at times, do not guarantee the transport of accompanying bicycles. River sailing is a very interesting theme, and project VENTO is studying it to establish a link with the cycling infrastructure.
- 9.
In December 2009 a scholarship provided by the Lombardy Regional Government was granted for research proposals related to the international exhibition EXPO 2015 held in Milan. Project VENTO, with the proposal of a cycle path to reach the EXPO area, suggested conveying visitors to the external section of the exhibition area to create an ‘off-site EXPO’ that would develop through territories with a powerful calling for farming: over 10,000 farms are crossed by the cycling route.
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National financial predictive scheduling law.
- 11.
It was a multi-lot competition to assign the PFTE of the cycle route VENTO and to verify and validate the same for a total amount of ca. 1.8 million euro (1,793,093.14 €).
- 12.
The PFTE was assigned to Temporary Project Grouping coordinated by Cooprogetti Società Cooperativa.
- 13.
In November 2019 the Ministry of Infrastructures consented to the PFTE and to the four priority functional lots, one for each region, that will be subjected to the planning process (final and executive starting from January 2020), and will be finally created: from Chivasso to Turin for the Piedmont lot, from San Rocco al Porto to Stagno Lombardo for the Lombardy one, from Piacenza to Fossadello and the urban segment of Ferrara for the Emilia Romagna lot and from Adria to Loreo for the Veneto lot.
- 14.
Interministerial Decree 29/11/2018 Plan for the division of resources.
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Giacomel, A., Giudici, D., Munno, C. (2021). Design, Public Engagement and Communication: Reframing Methodology. In: Pileri, P., Moscarelli, R. (eds) Cycling & Walking for Regional Development. Research for Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44003-9_11
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