Autostrada A22 (Italy)

Yet in 1949, during the Geneva Convention on Road Traffic, it was designed a route, identified as E56, leading Scandinavia to the southest point of Italy. The current Autobrennero track was already part of that route plan.

The next step for the fulfillment of the project was the foundation of Autostrada del Brennero S.p.A., on 20 February 1959, that two years later was given the concession for the building and the following management of the highway. Autostrada del Brennero S.p.A. is still the company which curates A22 infrastructure. The motorway track was initially designed by Bruno and Lino Gentilini, assisted by senator Guido de Unterrichter. The first plan was then edited, and it was made up by two carriageway, 7,5 x 2 metres each. The project Verona-Brenner was approved by ANAS on 25 January 1962, while the segment Verona-Modena was approved during the following year. Later on, several plots of land had to be dispossessed, underpasses and flyovers had to be built (for both roads and railroads), 307 kilometers of power lines and 74 km of telephone lines even had to be moved away. It all required about 23 billion lira.

In 1963 it was approved the definitive track plan and, also thanks to international loans, the realization began. The first segment open to the public - 50 km between Bolzano and Trento - was inaugurated on 21 December 1968. The first motorway traffic between Italy and Austria occurred on 5 April 1971.

After the opening of other segments, the highway could be considered as definitely completed on 11 April 1974, with the inauguration of the section between Chiusa and Bolzano, resulting the most complicated one due to the complex infrastructural and engineering work. Overall, at that time 21 entrance-and-exit toll booth and 12 service stations were opened.

At that time the overall cost of A22 amounted to 243 721 821 000 lire, so about 780 millions lire per kilometer. Just in 1984 highway A22 managed to have its first net profit.

During the years, the expressway A22 had been subjected to few track modifications; mostly, toll booth have been opened or closed. For instance:

• "Bressanone sud - Zona industriale (= industrial area)": opened just for the ones heading north or coming from north. It is expected the opening toward the other direction, too;
• "Trento sud": opened on 3 May 2011, costed 17,5 million euro, including the new bridge above Adige;
• "Trento centro (= center)": only the highway exits have been closed since 23 May 2011.

Nowadays, the motorway consists of 313,5 km of track, with 23 entrance toll booth, 22 exit toll booth, 6 security centers, 6 services centers, and 22 gas stations.

With a total of 313 km of highway track, A22 originates near Modena, at the interchange on motorway A1, not far from Modena-Nord toll booth. After Modena, the motorway traverses the whole Pianura Padana, overshooting Carpi and Mantua, in the real Po Valley heart. In Verona A22 crosses highway A4, afterwards it settles in the Adige Valley, in parallel to Lake Garda. It goes past Rovereto, then passing through Trento and Bolzano. From here, it sets inside the Isarco Valley (known in German as 'Eisacktal'), tighter than Po and Adige valleys. Therefore, here A22 twists and turns through the valley, easily overtaking Bressanone and then going over Vipiteno toll booth. Finally, A22 reaches the Brenner Pass in Brennero, where it gets the Austrian border and comes to its end. Here, the passageway Modena-Munich goes on crossing the boundary, following the Austrian A13 Brenner Autobahn. As it clearly appears, A22 is a strongly important highway for connections and transports between Southern and Northern Europe, designed on a track studied and planned to make use of one of the lowest mountain passes in the Alps, the Brenner Pass - one of the busiest borders in Europe - located at only 1375 m above sea level.

Statistical studies calculated that this expressway moves 30-40 thousands vehicles per day (among them, approssimately about 1/3 are heavy vehicles), with higher peaks during holiday transfers; sometimes the circulation of traffic comes to stand still, because of this congestion, causing several serious brakings, queues and small accidents and rear-end collisions, also due to the limitation of the track at just two lanes. To avoid these problems, it is suggested and incentivized the use of intermodal freight transport for the heavy vehicles, taking them onto specific wagons or boxcars, and the conveyance abroad from Verona by railway.

A22 guardrails, whose brown colour is very typical, are made in Corten steel, an alloy showing elevated corrosion resistance rates and high mechanical strength.

The traffic news in Trentino-Alto Adige are provided by Radio NBC (in Italian) and radio Südtirol 1 (in German), whereas in the remaining section are broadcast by radio Pico.

• A22 motorway Official Website