Construction sites in Lugano: the City Council aims to reduce inconvenience

Context

TL;DR

• The Municipality answers Michele Codella's question
• Work in Lugano will continue in the coming years
• Focus between Botta Shelter and Corso Pestalozzi
• The interventions in Molino Nuovo are close to completion

Key facts

• Question → Michele Codella
• Construction works in progress → Besso and Genzana underpass
• Project → StazLu
• Future area → Botta shelter – Corso Pestalozzi
• Road works → via Madonnetta, via la Santa and via Pazzalino
• Subjects cited → AIL and Canton
• Expected effect → contain time, costs and inconvenience
• Recipients → citizens, users and economic activities

In Lugano, the Municipality responded to Michele Codella's question on construction sites that complicate the lives of citizens. The Executive has outlined the coordination of the work of the coming years and the ways to mitigate its impact on the population.

In recent years, Lugano has been affected by significant infrastructure works, which will continue in the future. The Municipality is therefore called upon to allow large construction sites to coexist with the interventions that the City cannot renounce, including road and infrastructural maintenance works connected to the credits intended for the extraordinary maintenance of the city roads and the canal network.

The areas indicated by the Municipality

The StazLu project includes the construction sites underway in Besso and the Genzana underpass. In the coming years, the focus of the interventions will be the area between the Pensilina Botta and Corso Pestalozzi, where the Piazzale ex Scuole will be redeveloped, the tram-train network will be built and the underground infrastructure will be renewed.

Faced with the concentration of interventions, the Municipality aims to make the various clients collaborate. The intent is to avoid, as far as possible, that the construction sites follow each other separately, coordinate the different operational phases and limit the overall impact on citizens, users and economic activities. According to the Executive, this method should help reduce time, costs and inconvenience.

Extraordinary maintenance is also part of the planning: in the most demanding phases of large construction sites, the City intends to place work on roads and pipelines outside the Centre. It is with this in mind that the works were organized between Piazza Molino Nuovo and the roundabout of via Ruvigliana, along via Madonnetta, via la Santa and via Pazzalino. Now close to completion, they include the renewal of the underground infrastructure, carried out by the AIL, and the laying of the sound-absorbing asphalt, managed by the Canton.

Operational details

For those who reach Lugano for work, including cross-border commuters, the Municipality's response does not provide a timetable or an alternative route. The practical fact that emerges is another: the management of the works should focus on the sequence, so as to avoid maintenance arriving immediately after a large construction site or multiple interventions overlapping in the Centre.

It doesn't mean jobs are cancelled. The strategy described by the City tries to bring together different works: on the one hand the tram-train, the redevelopment of the former School Square and the underground infrastructures in the central area; on the other, the maintenance of the roads and the drainage network. For users, the expected benefit is not the absence of construction sites, but a reduction in overall impact, time and inconvenience.

Before and after: the stated logic

For a cross-border worker, this distinction helps to read the news without turning it into a calendar that the source does not provide. Besso and the Genzana underpass belong to the works already in progress; the area between Pensilina Botta and Corso Pestalozzi is indicated as the main fire in the coming years; the interventions between Piazza Molino Nuovo and the via Ruvigliana roundabout are instead described as close to completion. These are three different situations and do not authorize us to deduce times, closures or diversions.

The answer puts citizens, users and economic activities on the same level. For this reason, planning does not only concern circulation, but also the impact on economic activities. The Municipality does not promise that every inconvenience will be eliminated: it indicates the objective of reducing it while the necessary works are carried out.

Key points

To transform the answer into a useful reading grid for those who work in Lugano, the cross-border worker can follow a simple sequence, without attributing information to the source that it does not contain.

Four operational steps

1. Identify the area. Distinguish between Besso and the Genzana underpass, where works are already underway as part of StazLu; the area between Pensilina Botta and Corso Pestalozzi, indicated for the next few years; and the stretch between Piazza Molino Nuovo and the Via Ruvigliana roundabout, where the works are close to completion.

2. Associate the intervention. For the central area, the municipal response refers to the Piazzale ex Scuole, the tram-train network and the renewal of the underground infrastructure. In Molino Nuovo, however, it indicates the renewal of the underground infrastructure entrusted to the AIL and the laying of the sound-absorbing asphalt by the Canton.

3. Read the sequence. The City will try to schedule extraordinary maintenance of roads and pipelines outside the Center during the most demanding phases of large construction sites. The works at Molino Nuovo were brought forward compared to the start of the large construction sites in the Center precisely to avoid overlaps.

4. Separate goal and result. Reducing inconvenience is the objective declared by the Municipality. However, the response does not quantify the effect on circulation and does not set a detailed timetable.

This procedure does not produce an itinerary, travel time, or detour. It helps you understand which phase your move concerns and so as not to confuse construction sites already underway, works planned in the coming years and interventions nearing completion. For those who travel through Lugano for work, including cross-border commuters, it is a more solid distinction than any route obtained by deduction.

If the reference is Molino Nuovo, the point to follow is the anticipation of the works compared to the Center. If the reference is the central area, the data to follow is the coordination between clients. If the reference is Besso or the Genzana underpass, the answer instead places them among the interventions already underway. In all cases, the Municipality links planning to the need to guarantee the works and reduce the impact on citizens, users and economic activities.

To combine this local reading with a work travel monitoring tool, consult the storico traffico e code ai valichi.

Source: tio.ch