A2-A13 link: region demands deadline of 2045 at the latest

The regional transport commissions of Bellinzonese and Locarnese have taken a joint position on the A2-A13 highway link: the project cannot be postponed beyond 2045. The statement comes after the Confederation raised the possibility of delaying the project beyond 2050, potentially to 2055.

The two commissions are also concerned about federal offices' request to reopen the comparison between the route on the left bank and the one on the right bank of the Magadino plain. For Bellinzonese and Locarnese, the alternatives have already been analyzed for decades, through studies costing millions of francs and a long process of political and territorial dialogue.

The consensus already reached locally

Mattia Lepori, a Bellinzona city councillor and president of the Bellinzonese regional transport commission, told SEIDISERA: "Quello che vogliamo evitare è che il dibattito pubblico venga riaperto quando c'è un consenso già ampio verso un'opera necessaria" ("What we want to avoid is the public debate being reopened when there is already broad consensus around a necessary project"). According to Lepori, the timeline cannot be pushed back by another ten years: the request to the Confederation is to confirm the 2045 deadline.

The project backed by the two commissions is the PG USTRA variant, on the left bank. Lepori notes that the political working group has already met with the Federal Roads Office, which reportedly seemed convinced of the merits of this solution. The right-bank variant returned to the table at the request of the Federal Office for the Environment.

The Locarnese region points to the project's long history. Its agglomeration is the only one in Switzerland without a direct connection to the national highway network. Locarno's mayor, Nicola Pini, president of the Locarnese regional transport commission, notes that national road planning has discussed the issue for 60 years.

For Pini, this is not an expansion of the network but the completion of something planned for decades. The fear is that a new comparison of routes could further lengthen timelines and weaken the consensus reached locally. "Il Locarnese ha bisogno di questo collegamento" ("The Locarnese region needs this link"), Pini said, recalling the political consensus-building work carried out together with the Bellinzonese commission and the whole canton over decades.