- Location: Italy – Sicily – Messina
- Client: Consorzio per le Autostrade Siciliane S.p.A. (CAS)
- Project value: € 60,242,108
The Consorzio per le Autostrade Siciliane (CAS) has the concession for the following motorway sections: A18 Messina – Catania, Syracuse – Gela and the A20 Messina-Palermo.
The “Ritiro Viaduct” is located along this last section, a work that is included in a schedule for special maintenance works, one of the most significant and challenging such projects due to its complexity.
The project involves improving the static and seismic capacity of the viaduct, which is located in the municipality of Messina, with the complete demolition of the decks, reanalysing and optimising the geometry of the road axis, while maintaining the existing piers.
The viaduct comprises two separate, structurally independent lanes, with respective lengths of 924.1 metres with 22 spans (right lane; Palermo direction) and of 866.77 metres with 20 spans (left lane). The bay of the spans varies from 35 to 45 metres, with the piers reaching a height of 63 metres.
The infrastructure is located between the Messina-Boccetta junction and the Villafranca Tirrenia barrier. It extends entirely within a highly developed urban area, bypassing a very busy roadway and numerous residential buildings, some of which are directly under its vertical projection.
The static and seismic capacity upgrade works will be activated in different stages:
- reinforcing the foundations;
- reinforcing the piers;
- reinforcing and/or demolishing the abutments;
- replacing the old decks –produced with four pre-stressed reinforced concrete girders, simply laid down – with new decks featuring a mixed steel/concrete structure and a continuous girder static scheme.
All works will take place within the densely built-up area of the City of Messina to ensure the flow of traffic.
