Sicily A18 extension

[Rob590]

I'm planning a holiday to Sicily next year, and I'm trying to work out if we favour a one stop or two stop holiday. We're planning to stay in Syracuse, but road connections look slow for heading west and inland.

Syracuse is on the A18 motorway, which at the moment terminates a few miles west of Syracuse at Neto. However, my Lonely Planet has a dashed westwards extension of the A18 as far as Gela marked in it; Google Maps appears to show some satellite image construction to a point south of Modica.

Any ideas as to how much, if any, of this new road will be opened by May 2019?

[si404]

This very useful source on European motorway openings' Italy post, gives two sections opening in March 2019, which correspond with construction from the existing bit to where you saw the construction end on Satellite imagery. Those dates might change, so keep an eye on it.

[Rob590]

Great - thanks for the link, very useful!

[brombeer]

I wouldn't rely on the motorway being open beyond its current terminus at Rosolini (still 30 miles beyond Syracusa). The first phase of an extension towards Gela has been commissioned, which would have taken the A18 to the SS194 just South of Modica. That project has, however, been delayed by alleged corruption and insolvency of the main contractor. When I was in the area in March, works had been stalled for months and attempts to break the deadlock by continuing the works with sub-contractors progressed very slowly. Latest that I found is that the works are now back open, but no way they'll complete that by next spring. Judge for yourself on the basis of my photos of this March: https://flickr.com/photos/154793443@N05 ... 5117308995

[Chris56000]

The version of the Via Michelin I now have on my 'fone shows the A18 as fully open to what appears to be a future sliproad terminating on the SS194 south of Modica.

One question I do have, is, or was, a Sicilian South Western Coastal Motorway ever planned to extend the A18 to the A29 at Castelvetrano along what is currently the E931 corridor using the ordinary road system?

Has a fixed link ever been proposed between Sicliy and the rest of Italy/European mainland? – after all the distance isn't large, possibly only about 2 miles/3.2 km!

Chris Williams

[Chris5156]

Has a fixed link ever been proposed between Sicliy and the rest of Italy/European mainland? – after all the distance isn't large, possibly only about 2 miles/3.2 km!

Many times! There is still a sort-of active project but its status is, as with all things in Sicily, somewhat uncertain.

[exiled]

Has a fixed link ever been proposed between Sicliy and the rest of Italy/European mainland? – after all the distance isn't large, possibly only about 2 miles/3.2 km!

Many times! There is still a sort-of active project but its status is, as with all things in Sicily, somewhat uncertain.

If they build a bridge will it end the strange layout for the ferry in Villa San Giovanni https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@38.21599 ... 312!8i6656 where you buy the ticket and then go back onto the public roads to get to the ferries?

[Owain]

Has a fixed link ever been proposed between Sicliy and the rest of Italy/European mainland? – after all the distance isn't large, possibly only about 2 miles/3.2 km!

Many times! There is still a sort-of active project but its status is, as with all things in Sicily, somewhat uncertain.

I've been told by a number of Italians that the Strait of Messina is widening by a couple of centimetres every year, as Sicily is moving away from Calabria, and that this presents more of a problem than the frequency of earthquakes in the area.

One question I do have, is, or was, a Sicilian South Western Coastal Motorway ever planned to extend the A18 to the A29 at Castelvetrano along what is currently the E931 corridor using the ordinary road system?

I don't think so. I believe that the A18 was originally conceived as a Messina-Catania motorway, and the extensions to it are simply add-ons rather than being part of a bigger plan.

[brombeer]

As I understand it, the plan was roughly that the South-Eastern part from Siracusa to Gela would become full motorway, while the more westerly part between Gela and the A29 at Castelvetrano would be a super-two (single carriageway without level crossings and with gentle curves). If you look at SS115 between Castelvetrano and Licata, that has been achieved reasonably well. East of that, things get progressively worse. It’s the part from Gela onwards that’s an absolute nightmare: as through traffic is supposed to be handled by the new motorway, they did bugger all to improve the old road. And with that motorway being over 50 years in the making, you can guess what it looks like. Oddly, North-South roads that were supposed to connect to the A18 can be in a surprisingly good state!

The South-Eastern part was supposed to get its motorway by virtue of having somewhat bigger towns, but also more heavy industry (the region being well placed for ships en route to/from Suez). But well, then came a shift in thinking about industries in the 1970s. But the region does still need something, even if I cannot see the A18 ever reaching beyond the outskirts of Ragusa. Further West, a good single carriageway will do. One should also bear in mind that the good single carriageways from Palermo to Sciacca, from Agrigento to Caltanisetta and from Gela to Caltanisetta (the latter two connecting to the A19) offer much faster connections to Catania, Messina and Palermo than a “full circle motorway” could ever achieve.

[Chris5156]

As I understand it, the plan was roughly that the South-Eastern part from Siracusa to Gela would become full motorway, while the more westerly part between Gela and the A29 at Castelvetrano would be a super-two (single carriageway without level crossings and with gentle curves). If you look at SS115 between Castelvetrano and Licata, that has been achieved reasonably well. East of that, things get progressively worse. It’s the part from Gela onwards that’s an absolute nightmare: as through traffic is supposed to be handled by the new motorway, they did bugger all to improve the old road. And with that motorway being over 50 years in the making, you can guess what it looks like. Oddly, North-South roads that were supposed to connect to the A18 can be in a surprisingly good state!

Interesting. Gela seems to have half an east-west bypass, D2 and grade separated, which was open but in a state of serious dereliction in 2009 (when the GSV car visited), but now seems to have been closed off at its eastern junction with SS115. It looks for all the world like it was meant to form an onward link from the A18, but there is no A18, nor is there a western half of the bypass to link back to SS115 on the other side of town. It may actually be abandoned. Infrastructure in southern Italy is wild.

[brombeer]

It was to be the onward link from the A18 indeed, but it would do from the current SS115 too (the two would meet pretty much at the Eastern end of this road). The road that is there (currently closed) looks like something that should have gone to SS117bis, but fell just a few hundred meters short. Can’t find out why - probably something like “contractor bankrupt, no more money”. Had it actually made it to SS117bis, which is important as a connector to Catania and the North of Sicily, the Eastern bypass would have had some use.

The good news is that there now seems to be money for not only finalizing this particular bit, but even a full Tangenziale di Gela, offering a bypass that would take you to near Manfria. But well, this being Sicily it will probably take at least 15 years. On the actual A18, looks like the extension to Modica will open this autumn.