After years of discussions, second thoughts and bureaucratic procedures that were anything but streamlined, yesterday 8 November the works for the construction of the GRABThe Great Bicycle Ring Roadwhich will have to surround the Capital by 30 June 2026, and which will be created by Astral through a Memorandum of Understanding signed with Rome Capital and the Lazio Region, which led to the Official determination of Astral last October 3rd.
A long story
The project for the construction of 44.2 km of cycle/pedestrian path it was presented by Legambiente and VeloLove on 8 May 2015 during the meeting ‘Here’s Grab: the GRA for bikes’at the former Latin paper mill in the Appia Antica Park. Everything is beautiful, applauded but seems to have been put aside.
But no, because two years later, in May 2017, the funds were actually allocated, furthermore 146 thousand euros assigned to the Campidoglio to create the infrastructuredestined to cross many of the most beautiful places in the Eternal City.
The financing was then actually disbursed by the Funded by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport with the DM 517/2018.
From 2018 to today, “only” 6 years have passed (9 in total since the presentation of the project) and the construction site has finally started. It has to be concluded by 30 June 2026under penalty of expiration of the funds, those of the PNRR which partly finance the work.
The project
As stated on the Roma Capitale website, the GRAB, Bicycle Ring Roadit’s a cycle route of approximately 50 km that connects the central areas of Rome with the more external ones.
One rthe seam between the different historical, urban planning and architectural eras of the city which brings with it the creation of new cycle paths, the valorisation of existing routes and the opportunity to discover corners of the city of extraordinary beauty less known to the general public
Rome is more liveable also from an artistic point of view, in a city where history and art are certainly not lacking.
From the Colosseum to the Appia Antica, from the Aqueduct Park to the Quadraro, from Ponte Nomentano to Prati, from Castel Sant’Angelo to the Fori Imperiali, along a ring that crosses nineteenth-century neighborhoodsdistricts of the ancient city and places of the contemporary city: it is one Sacred and profane Rome one that can finally be enjoyed on foot or riding a bike
The path it will unfold through 6 lots, as shown on the map.
The first construction site started yesterday 8 November at LOT 1, in particular on Via dell’Almone, although in reality some preliminary works had begun on 16 July on Via di San Gregorio al Celio.
The GRAB is among the interventions foreseen by the PNRR but in reality it is present in the program of interventions connected to the Jubilee of the Catholic Church of 2025.
Will Rome finally become a sustainable and more livable city?
Source: Rome Mobility
