Environmental mitigations consist of a range of interventions and technical solutions, mainly connected with the motorway route and at a local scale, aimed at “limiting” the visual and acoustic impact of the work on the ground.
Instead of carrying out targeted micro-actions with minimum local impact, as usually happens, Autostrada Pedemontana Lombarda has opted for widespread actions, aimed at creating new landscapes. Not merely a screen of the roadway, but a twofold opportunity to strengthen the system of ecological corridors, redeveloping busy crossings, and to redevelop fringe areas characterised by loss of landscape quality. The mitigation measures will create a broad green strip, of variable size, which will be visible not just to motorway users and will be publicly and ecologically accessible. The choice to abide by the agricultural division of the area has led to the design of a chessboard of scattered natural elements that retrace the ancient rural layout, rather than mapping out a monotonous ecological strip parallel to the road, which would have emphasised the appearance of the infrastructure even further.
When selecting and dimensioning the operations, the Environmental Issues Department of Pedemontana Lombarda took the following general criteria into consideration:
- 01. The role of filtering air pollutants, which has led to the selection of particular vegetable extracts with high capacity for CO2 absorption and particulate dispersion containment, combined with the possible forming of mounds;
- 02. The screening of acoustic effects achieved by creating, by means of morphological remodelling, anti-noise dunes associated with broad wooded strips;
- 03. The creation of strips and green connecting areas, with a stepping stone function (marker) for wildlife movement, where the route crosses agricultural areas;
- 04. Repairing the ecological network at the points where the work intersects elements of the network itself, such as rivers, natural and artificial water courses, natural areas, gaps;
- 05. Disguising buildings and works displaying elements intruding into the perception and enjoyment of the landscape, lavishing special attention on the requests submitted by the Municipalities concerned.
Mitigation statistics:
- EUR 50 million total cost of carrying out the environmental mitigation works
- 320 hectares of land affected by environmental mitigation works, comprising:
- 73 hectares of wooded area;
- 46 hectares of forested grassland;
- 105 hectares of wooded-shrub strips;
- 68 hectares of wooded areas to redevelop;
- 36 km of acoustic barriers