Florence | Protests begin for the Tunnel Project Under the Arno River

Florence, capital of the Tuscany region, wonderful city of art, cradle of the Renaissance that boasts an incomparable historical, artistic and cultural heritage, sees on the horizon the tunnel project under the Arno river with an immediate reaction from the residents who fear a distortion of the profile and identity of the neighborhood and have requested a meeting with the new Mayor Sara Funaro.

This project develops from a sixteenth-century structure that nevertheless exists, a passage under the Arno river with a length of 250 meters, five meters below the river level.

The building used for the project is located in an isolated area at a road junction of the avenues of the Ring Road concretely in Piazza Piave near the bustling Via del Malcontenti and in ancient times connected the large spaces of the Torre della Zecca, a Florentine bulwark that closed the city walls towards the Arno to the east in which the florin was minted by exploiting the power of water.

That construction is opposite of a part of a gate of the former defensive walls of Florence now located, isolated in the district of Oltrarno in the square Piazza Giuseppe Poggi close by the strategic Piazzale Michelangelo and Via dei Bastioni  not far from the iconic Ponte Vecchio.

The brick building was probably used in the 19th century and was walkable during the period of the Second World War when it was used by partisans to move easily from one side of the Arno to the other.

This building was then closed in 1956 and its reopening, according to what was reported by corrieredellasera.it well known Italian newspaper published in Milan, had been hypothesized in 2010 by the former mayor of Florence Matteo Renzi.

This project in its essence of development is inspired as a passage open to tourists in a unique itinerary similar to the well-known Greenwich Foot Tunnel, about 370 meters long, opened in 1902 crosses beneath the River Thames in East London linking the area of the Royal Borough Greenwich, asite famous for the meridian from which the time zones depart on the south bank with Milwall on the north with approximately 4.000 peeople using it each day.

The FunctionPresident of the Toscana Region Eugenio Giani accompanied by the mayor Sara Funaro now relaunches the execution of the project given the availability of € 7 million.

Linked to all that, the reconnaissance of the tunnel with robots and the work of the water scooping machines to empty it has begun, with the analysis to understand what necessary interventions will have to be carried out in order to make this tunnel passable again with the idea of opening it to citizens of Florence and tourist but finding the immediate reaction of protest from the locals.

Link - https://www.ttgitalia.com/incoming/firenze-e-il-tunnel-sotto-l-arno-via-alle-proteste-MF21064954