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We are the country which built more than 800km and 400 bridges in 8 years

The most beautiful highway in the world

The Autostrada del Sole is the greatest engineering work of the country in the post-war years. It is a connection between the cities of Milan and Naples; about 800 km long, built in 8 years and including almost 400 bridges. This project saw the joint venture of four major Italian companies (Italcementi, Agip, Fiat and Pirelli) united in SISI (Italian Road Initiatives Company). The company handed over the project to the state and in 1955 the Minister, Engineer Giuseppe Romita, launched a multi-year program of a highway plan for the whole country. This programme saw the Autostrada del Sole as the guideline and included connecting highways, to be built afterwards, for all the other cities. The preliminary design of the motorway was assigned to Francesco Aimone Jelmoni who referred to the "Italstrade" technical office of the "Società Autostrade", founded for the occasion.


For the design, Jelmoni collaborated with Fedele Cova, an engineer from Borgomanero (Novara). They divided the entire route into lots of maximum 5 km each and assigned the construction to local private companies (sometimes family-ran) through a tender. This decision was made to speed up works which began in 1956 with the laying of the foundation stone in Milan. Another reason was to allow as many businesses possible to benefit from the economic burst and lead Italy towards an industrialization phase. The extremely positive effect was having the advice of expert engineers of the time who were called to represent, with their projects, the companies in the tender. In addition, each company, knowing they had
very limited construction experience and tools, put pride and passion in their contribution to the project; they were aware they were taking part in something very important that would revive Italy.

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In his preliminary project Jelmoni studied the orography of the area by walking the entire route and identifying the most suitable points where to build crossings. He designed all the bridges and overpasses of the highway and kept the papers in dedicated "boxes" (dossiers); one for each project. These were the tender basis; the project to beat. They would have been adopted only if they would’ve been cheaper and more convincing than the contesting projects.
After the construction of the Milan-Bologna route, began the construction of the one between Naples and Rome; it was so decided in fear works would be blocked for lack of funds once Rome was reached. The Trans-Apennine between Bologna and Florence was also built in 1960 (providing a favorable travel time of about 2 hours); works stopped for a short time to decide where to have the last stretch pass. The highway was chosen to pass near Arezzo. On October 4, 1964, the Autostrada del Sole was opened by Aldo Moro with the feared end of the economic boom.

Main Characters

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Giuseppe Romita: the minister who passed the law for the multi-year highway plan

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Francesco Aimone Jelmoni: designer of the entire industrial plan

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Fedele Cova: CEO of “Società Autostrade”

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Tullio Farabola: diva photographer

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Important dates

December 3, 1960: opening of the Trans-Apennine

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June 30 - September 13, 1964: exhibition at the MOMA in New York "Twentieth Century Engineering"

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October 4, 1964: opening of the entire route

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The most beautiful highway in the world
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I ponti

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Opere d'arte singolari: i ponti

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