Lungoirno, the insult to Bohigas’ idea

Betrayed and demolished: this is how the fate of the Lungoirnothe road designed by Oriol Bohigas The boulevard that was supposed to connect Fratte to the sea is a truncated artery in terms of traffic flow, for which one is forced to take illogical detours, with the good peace of mind of the idea of ​​a fast connection (indeed, this way the traffic jam is mathematical). But, above all, it is a road forgotten from the maintenance point of view. Beyond the problems with the pavement layout of the entire road axis (probably due to the unfortunate choice of majestic tree species that are not compatible) it is all the lighting system which has completely taken off. In Bohigas’ project, in fact, in addition to designing dedicated street lamps, a large lighting design was planned for both the bridges and the river. Along the entire road that runs from the Judicial Citadel, instead, lighting fixtures were positioned inside blocks with stone tiles. Well, practically all of them were vandalized.

In some cases, the electrical system has been gutted, probably to extract iron and copper. In others, the emptied space has been filled with various types of garbage. At this point, we should probably surrender to the victory of vandalism but at least try to fix it before the entire block is destroyed, with the related increase in costs to fix everything. Considering that we have not been able to preserve the blocks as illuminated systems, they might as well be closed to avoid, among other things, that they continue to function as a substitute for waste paper baskets. Among other things, it would seem that all the tiles that were left over from the construction of the Lungoirno had been stored inside a warehouse located in via Vinciprova, under the overpass inside the Salerno Mobilità rest area. These are special tiles that were purchased for the Lungoirno. It’s like when at home, after having renovated the kitchen, you keep the tiles for any future work and to avoid the risk of not finding any more identical ones. Exactly what you risk, instead, for Lungoirno, considering that the tiles that had been kept are used for other interventions with the result that the patch is worse than the damage and that for Lungoirno there is a risk of no more spare parts and, even in this case, of having to spend more public funds for refueling.

And since these are special tiles, the costs are already higher. In the dark and without road maintenance, Lungoirno is also an example of the lack of management of public greenery. Beyond the roundabouts and any flowerbed where yellow prevails, to create even more anarchy there were “willing” citizens who thought it a good idea to plant some palm species in the “holes” left by the uprooted and taken away trees.