The A22: a modern piece of infrastructure in the heart of the Alps

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) – Founded in 1959 by a group of local authorities (which today hold 84.75 per cent of the share capital), stretching from Bolzano to Modena to meet the growing demand for transport along the Brenner corridor, Autostrada del Brennero has always had a clear mission: to offer a safe, efficient and sustainable motorway service, with strong ties to the regions it passes through. The territory it traverses is multifaceted and complex: from the 1,375-metre Brenner Pass, it winds its way for 314 kilometres to the junction with the A1, in the heart of the Po Valley, passing over 142 bridges and viaducts and through 30 tunnels. Its route connects four regions: Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna.

According to the latest available figures, in 2024, Autostrada del Brennero recorded sales revenue of 405.5 million euros and a net profit of 97.92 million (+22.35 per cent compared with 2023). Of the 50.6 million set aside for investment, 75 per cent is earmarked for management innovations. And it is precisely innovation that is one of the pillars of the Green Corridor project, which forms the basis of the proposal submitted to and deemed feasible by the Ministry of Transport for the new concession. This proposal involves over 9 billion in entirely self-financed investment, centred on three key pillars: the energy transition, intermodality and digitalisation.

Whilst awaiting the implementation of its investment plan, the company has managed to cope with the growing volumes of traffic in an optimal manner. This is borne out by the accident figures: despite the number of vehicles rising from an average of 10,930 per day in the year the entire section opened, in 1974, to 45,984 in 2024, the accident rate now stands at 15.97 points, almost half the national average, with a positive trend now spanning two decades. The reason? A comprehensive approach, comprising several key elements: starting with the introduction in the 1990s of the ban on overtaking by lorries, through to the use of noise-absorbing tarmac and high-performance Corten steel crash barriers, right up to traffic management and infrastructure improvements: every year, the company allocates an average of around 200,000 euros per kilometre for maintenance, which is carried out according to a precise schedule to minimise disruption to traffic and is now supported by a highly sophisticated sensor system on bridge structures. The icing on the cake is a robust safety network comprising 82 traffic wardens and 182 workers, coordinated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by the Cau (User Assistance Centre), which operates with the aid of 231 CCTV cameras. In 2024, traffic wardens carried out no fewer than 16,509 interventions along the route, with an average response time of 7 minutes from the call to arrival at the scene of the emergency.

The decision to invest in the railways, taken by the Company’s directors in the 1990s, has also contributed to the effective management of the transport network. As traffic volumes increased, the Company realised that long-distance freight traffic needed to be gradually shifted to rail. This marked the start of a project that has now led the Autobrennero Group to become, after Mercitalia, the second-largest cross-border operator in the freight sector in Italia. Thanks to the companies InRail, Rtc and Lokomotion, the Group, led by Autostrada del Brennero, transfers around 1,500 heavy goods vehicles per day to rail, resulting in a saving of 300,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year. From this perspective, motorways and railways are not competitors but allies, conceived as a single, integrated system, where the railway is preparing to handle ever-increasing volumes of freight and the motorway is becoming increasingly technologically advanced and equipped to provide services for zero-emission vehicles, thereby making a decisive contribution to the goal of sustainability. Naturally, this plan aligns with the planned ‘smart’ upgrade of the motorway, including the construction of a third lane from Verona to Modena and a third dynamic lane from Verona to Bolzano, as well as the comprehensive digitalisation of the route.