March 23 - Road transport of out-of-gauge (OOG) cargoes on the nation's road network has become a major issue in Italy as a result of restrictions imposed after the accident that occurred in Lecco last year when a bridge collapsed over a busy road while a
After Conftrasporto and Confindustria's complaints, Italy's Associazione Italiana Trasporti Eccezionali (AITE) has now weighed-in and asked for clear and uniform rules for all the stakeholders in order to simplify the issues involved in the licensing of OOG cargoes for transport by road in Italy.
"There are repeated requests for safety checks even if the authorities have already obtained a recent transit approval, thus causing delays and extra costs for companies," AITE notes, adding: "The creation of a strategy clarifying the procedures and providing safety, practicability, cost and time saving for the issue of permits can no longer be deferred."
This week a meeting with the stakeholders took place at the Italian Ministry of Transport in Rome to address the situation and try to find new rules valid for all the country's regions.
Today, only the Lombardy region has addressed the problem with the infrastructure assessor, Alessandro Sorte, who proposed new rules to simplify procedures for OOG cargo transport by road.
Provinces and municipalities will have to clearly indicate which roads are eligible for heavy weight shipments and highlight potential risks or limitations, thus accelerating the issue of the required authorisations.
At the current stage this provision is still a draft law and will need to be approved before coming into force.
