The Project:

The Messina-Palermo motorway, the E90, is the southernmost extension of the therefore the services performed by Technital concern the approximately 181.6 km. stretch between Messina and Buonfornello where it joins the Catania-Palermo Motorway. The motorway construction took place in an initial period between 1967 and 1975, during which the sections Messina-Rocca di Caprileone (96.6 km.) and Buonfornello-Cefalu' (17.8 km.) were built, followed by a long pause of approximately 8 years between 1975 and 1983 due to the block on financing to the motorway sector.  With the resumption of financing, sanctioned by Law no. 531 of August 12, 1982, construction could resume.

Since that time the remaining sections of the motorway have been contracted out and the final lots, in the section between S. Stefano di Camastra and Castelbuono, are under construction. As of today, a total of 140.3 km. of motorway are open to traffic and construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2002.

Despite having been constructed over different periods of time, the motorway has always maintained the same project standard.  The design speed was established at 80 km/h in areas of high accident risk, 100 km/h in areas of average accident risk, and 120 km/h in level areas.  The platform is composed of two carriageways which are separated by a median strip of variable width of no less than 3 meters.

The horizontal and vertical layout of the carriageways is normally parallel or coplanar, save for the stretches in which they are totally separate due to the presence of viaducts, tunnels, or particularly steep terrain .  Each carriageway has two 3.75 m. lanes, a 2.5 m. shoulder lane and a 0.75 m. grass verge which is flanked by a l2.50 m. ditch in sections in cuttings.  The grass verge is substituted with a 0.50 m. curb in tunnels. The horizontal layout was studied  to permit maximum reduction of rectilinear stretches and instead has a curved alignment which is better suited to the characteristics of the land and also makes for safer driving. The vertical layout foresees maximum longitudinal gradients of 4% in ascent and 4.5% in descent. These values are reduced to 2.5% in tunnels for short stretches, and to 1.5% in longer stretches.

In addition to the architectural structures, almost all of which attest to a considerable design complexity, the various ground consolidation works, retaining walls, hydraulic crossing structures, etc., the project also foresaw lighting systems for tunnels and interchanges, ventilation and security systems in tunnels, and toll collection stations and toll booths.

The original project was conceived as a product of "integrated planning" in which environmental themes played an essential role in making optimal project decisions. The revision of the original project highlighted the existence of some important problems of more recent origin which were connected with both the geomorphologic situation of the land and the new territorial restraints.