When is a motorway not a motorway?

Sponge Bob

Drove this thing once, scary POS it is.

Have a look at a sadly not untypical bit of the A3 Motorway in Southern Italy where the mafia ran off with most of the cash in the 1970s.

Anyway current situation on upgrade is that it is allegedly supposed to finish in 2014..back from 2012 not so long ago.

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stradeanas.it%2Findex.php%3F%2Fcontent%2Findex%2Farg%2Fattivita_salerno_reggio%2Fpage%2F1

While it involves replacing some spectacular bridges which are too narrow, eg eg eg and it also involves arresting loads of local mafiosi to keep them quiet.

http://www.nowitaly.com/giornale/news_eng/92537/calabrian-mafia-arrests-clans-preyed-motorway-construction-work.htm?a=comment

The 'Ndrangheta clans took a 3% slice off construction contracts and supplied illegal concrete for the project, which has been lagging behind schedule for years, police said. The clan fighting became "most intense", police said, when the construction work moved into southern Calabria between the container port of Gioia Tauro and the town of Scilla on the Strait of Messina across from Sicily. 'Ndrangheta is now believed to be Italy's richest and most powerful mafia, moving past Cosa Nostra in Sicily thanks to its domination of the Europan cocaine trade. Police say it also has a large chunk of the illicit traffic that goes through Gioia Tauro, Europe's largest container port.
Separately on Tuesday, three members of Italy's tax police were arrested for allegedly tipping off another 'Ndrangheta clan to tax inspections due to be carried out on front companies. The three officers were not identified. Also arrested was an accountant who allegedly passed on the information to the mafiosi, while another 61 people including several doctors and a Carabiniere were placed under investigation in connection with bogus road accidents.

niloc1951

Italian roads:(

I drove over 2,000Kms in Italy last year and saw inside lanes closed off due to surface break up with weeds and all, obviously no or minimal foundation, bridges with up probably 5cms or more vertical separation at expansion joints. On many occasions I limited my speed to 30 or 40 Kmph for fear of damaging my vehicle.
Things were worse the further south you went, most roads than AP's (motorways) were atrocious and even some of the AP's where also pretty bad.

Amtmann

Whenever I read something like the OP I'm reminded that Ireland might well be a Mediterranean country in northern Europe, but at least *some* of the Protestant Work Ethic rubbed off on us.

PseudoFamous

Tremelo wrote: »

Whenever I read something like the OP I'm reminded that Ireland might well be a Mediterranean country in northern Europe, but at least *some* of the Protestant Work Ethic rubbed off on us.

Careful now.

Sponge Bob

They are inevitably going to run out of money before they finish it, meanwhile it has the most spectacular collection both of high and of substandard motorway bridges in Europe....whether they replace them or not. eg



http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?id=s0002297

cargo

Looks class (although a bit scary even from this distance)

munchkin_utd

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Drove this thing once, scary POS it is.

Have a look at a sadly not untypical bit of the A3 Motorway in Southern Italy where the mafia ran off with most of the cash in the 1970s.

heres some pics from that spot of the motorway that was built.




from http://www.panoramio.com/photo/31465817

scary thing is -
houses in Ireland were built in a similar manner without regard for doing it right or for those who end up using the structure.
And there was no mafia involvement