The Lake Garda cycle path, which is controversial locally, continues to grow. The province of Trentino has now shown the first gallery in which the new route is to be protected from falling rocks.
Riva del Garda/Limone - The Lake Garda circular route is an ambitious project with which the neighboring regions of Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino-South Tyrol in northern Italy hope to provide new impulses for tourism. At the moment there are only short sections in neighboring communities; between the towns you usually have to take the country road.
Million dollar project is intended to make it possible to cycle around Lake Garda
In the narrowest part of the lake in the north there are poorly lit or unlit tunnels through which car traffic roars and where there are no bicycle lanes. Ambitious mountain bikers can ride over the mountains. Otherwise there are the ferries.
The 166 km long “Garda by Bike” or “Ciclovia del Garda” cycle path around the lake is intended to become a continuous cycle route for cyclists. Estimated total cost: 344.5 million euros. In July 2018, the first part of the Lake Garda cycle path was inaugurated in Limone.
The cycle path that has been completed so far ends in nothingness after two kilometers
You can cycle two and a half kilometers along spectacular viaducts suspended into the rock to the Fallen Memorial at Cape Reamol, where the cycle path, which pedestrians can also use, ends at a car tunnel. Continuing the journey to Riva del Garda is life-threatening from the border between Lombardy and Trentino.
The province of Trentino has been building the cycle path for a year now. The construction of the 19 kilometer long route to Torbole is expected to cost around 100 million euros and be completed at the end of 2026. The first section that has been started is 5.3 kilometers long and is expected to cost 46.9 million euros alone, with the money coming from the municipalities and the province.
On Wednesday (April 17), the mayor, Cristina Santi, the city councilors and the president of Trentino, Maurizio Fugatti of the right-wing Lega party, visited the first tunnels with the construction managers and the geologist Claudio Valle, consultant for the cycle route have been completed in the new section or are in shell construction.
The new structure is quite monumental. The section's new tunnels were built to "absorb the impact of large boulders," according to the province. “In addition, a section of the route was constructed to allow the passage of an emergency vehicle,” said a press release from the province.
The new cycle path galleries look pretty bombastic
In addition, external cladding will be produced in different shades of gray, which will enable the structure to blend in with the color of the rocks from a distance. Finally, both the new and existing galleries will be embellished with artistic decorations by the architect Ferrari. In visualizations, these panels are reminiscent of a warship.
The project has been heavily criticized, with well over 100 kilometers still missing until the Lake Garda cycle path is completed, and the completed section is hopelessly overcrowded in the summer, even though it ends in nothing. The opponents of the Lake Garda cycle path want to demonstrate in Riva next Saturday.
Front of citizen initiatives fights against further construction
34 associations are fighting the project, which they estimate will cost over a billion euros. The “Garda Cycle Path” alliance? … Not like that!” denounces the “environmental and landscape devastation on the magnificent cliffs of Upper Garda” and the “lack of security given that the entire area is exposed to a high hydrogeological risk”.
In recent months, several rockfalls have occurred along the planned route. At the beginning of March, the collapse of several blocks at the point where Ponastraße branches off, which the cycle path is also supposed to pass, was particularly spectacular.
After storms, many rocky slopes and peaks in the Alps have become porous. Most recently, a massive landslide occurred at the Bernina in Switzerland.