Second Construction Period (1984 - present)

In 1984, after Law no. 531 of 1982 newly sanctioned State financing on motorways, following the block which went into effect with Law no. 492 of 1975, the allotment of new motorway contracts on both the Messina and Palermo sides started again.

Rocca di Caprileone-Caronia (24.6 km)

The Rocca di Caprileone - S. Agata di Militello section (8.8 km.) represents an additional functional section of motorway which enables traffic to bypass the urban/residential areas of S. Agata di Militello and connect with State Highway no. 113 on the coast via the foreseen interchange. The section of the alignment crosses an area with landscape features of considerable importance and therefore required particular attention in terms of planning and decisions to improve the blending into the environment.  The section is composed of a series of viaducts and tunnels of fairly modest undertaking and important consolidations to retain particularly unstable slopes.

In 1988 construction began on the successive functional section S. Agata di Militello -Torrente Furiano (7.2 km). This stretch was made functional by means of a temporary connection with State Highway no. 113 on the coast and is characterized by viaducts Inganno (378 m.), S. Teodoro (770 m.) and Furiano (850 m.) which was the most arduous undertaking with its 110 m.  spans  and 80 m. high  piers.

The section Torrente Furiano -Caronia (8.6 km.) travels through particularly difficult areas characterized by frequent and not very deep incisions, but with unstable sides and frequent landslides which called for rather complex architectural solutions.  The recent landslide of Torre Lauro is among the most memorable and important phenomena and stretched from the mountains to the sea , necessitating a change in the lay-out and the introduction of the Lauro viaduct (378 m.) with 70 m. spans and piers with single foundation shafts.

All together, the section is composed of 35% viaducts and 18% tunnels both natural and artificial. 

Cefalù-Castelbuono interchange (9 km)

The section Cefalu'-Torrente Marzo (6.2 km) on the Palermo side is located in  particularly harsh territory, as is demonstrated by the number of structural works present in the stretch with 77% tunnels, 12% viaducts and only 11% natural stretches which were also very difficult to construct.  This stretch was opened to traffic in 1992.

Subsequently the adjoining section Torrente Marzo - the Castelbuono interchange (2.8 km.) was built. This stretch includes important structural works such as the S. Ambrogio tunnel (1,800 m.) and the Malpertugio viaduct (677 m.) which was the most complicated viaduct of the entire motorway.

Furthermore, the total works relative to the Castelbuono interchange are also included, through which the connection with State Highway no. 113 on the coast is particularly guaranteed and, upon completion, will make the entire stretch to Cefalu' functional by enabling through traffic to avoid transit through the relative residential area.

Caronia - Castelbuono interchange (32.8 km)

This section represents the completion of the entire motorway connection between Messina and Palermo and concerns the most arduous part of the entire Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily, which is characterized by major and extensive landslides of recent origin, among which the landslide of Tusa is the most memorable and necessitated an important variation of  the original lay-out. Further modifications had to be introduced to the original lay-out, in that during the 15 years which had passed between project elaboration and the updating of the same, the area destined for the motorway had become progressively involved in the expansion of quarries to extract the necessary clay for the production of ceramics and industrial expansion.

In order to cross this stretch of the coastline, a number of important structural works were necessary.  In fact, 21% of the entire section is composed of viaducts and a good 63% is composed of tunnels.  Only 16% has a natural alignment.

The main viaducts which are all compact with 100 m. spans and piers which vary between 70 and 92 m. are the ones which travel through the Caronia, Tusa and Pollina river areas and have respective lengths of 800 m., 600m, and 1,170 m.  The major tunnels which all have two carriageways at a 50 m. distance are the Caronia  (1,955 m.), Pagliarotta (1,055 m.), S. Stefano (1,595 m.), Colonna (1,509 m.), Piana (2,583), Guardia (1,324 m.), Tusa (2,123 m.), Piano Paradiso (1,888 m.), Torre Finale (1,110 m.), and Cozzo Minneria (2,504 m.) tunnels.

Furthermore, the intermediate interchanges at S. Stefano di Camastra and Tusa were foreseen with difficult connections to civil roads.  For S. Stefano di Camastra in particular, the design took into consideration the local community's need to locate a sales point for  handmade local pottery along the highway, in order to promote the image of the community which is linked to its extensive pottery business, and to propose a valid alternative to the business which revolves entirely around State Highway no. 113 on the coast today.

Due to the difficult geomorphological conditions of the land, the problem emerged of finding adequate areas along this stretch of the motorway for the sales exhibition.  Therefore, the decision was made to locate the exhibit buildings in the area of the planned motorway interchange.

Read more about the Messina - Palermo Motorway : 
·        Background     ·        First Construction Period     ·        Main Viaducts     ·       Main Tunnels