The Autostrada A34 is an ''

autostrada The ''autostrade'' (; : ''autostrada'', ) are roads forming the Italian national system of motorways. The total length of the system is about , as of 30 July 2022. There are also 13 motorway spur routes, which extend for . Most of the Itali ...

'' (

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

for "

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

") long in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

located in the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

Friuli-Venezia Giulia Friuli-Venezia Giulia () is one of the 20 regions of Italy and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The regional capital is Trieste on the Gulf of Trieste, a bay of the Adriatic Sea. Friuli-Venezia Giulia has an area of and a ...

that branches off of the

Autostrada A4 The Autostrada A4, or Autostrada Serenissima (" Serenissima motorway"), is an '' autostrada'' (Italian for "motorway") long in Italy located in the regions of Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia which connects Turin and Trieste ...

at the

Villesse Villesse (; ) is a (municipality) in the Province of Gorizia, Regional decentralization entity of Gorizia in the Italy, Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about northwest of Trieste and about southwest of Gorizia. As of 31 Decemb ...

junction going towards

Gorizia Gorizia (; ; , ; ; ) is a town and (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, Region ...

. The motorway ends in Vertoiba/

Vrtojba Vrtojba (; ) is a settlement in the Municipality of Šempeter-Vrtojba in the Slovene Littoral region of Slovenia. A border crossing into Italy is located here. On the Italian side of the border, opposite Vrtojba, is the suburb of San Andrea (), n ...

, where it continues as the A1 motorway in Slovenia. The highway is managed by Autovie Venete. Previously, before the redevelopment, the highway was classified as a junction (Raccordo autostradale RA17), but was granted the new classification as Autostrada A34 by the Ministry of Transport. The entire highway requires the use of winter equipment from 15 November to 15 April.

History

The original junction was opened in the late 1970s. Since the end of 2005, the road has been managed by Autovie Venete.

Redevelopment

The original RA 17 junction was classified as a secondary extra-urban road, defined by Italian regulations as being a single highway road with at least one lane in each direction. The road was later upgraded to meet highway regulations, starting on 12 December 2009. The redevelopment was estimated to cost €172,000,000 and was done by a temporary association of companies: I.CO.P. SpA of Paolo Petrucco, Friulana Bitumi, SIOSS, Valle Costruzioni, and Tomat. To bring up to highway regulations, the junction had to be widened from 14 meters (45.93 ft.) to 25 meters (82.02 ft.), adding two more lanes of travel plus an emergency lane. Two artificial tunnels were built, along with a railway underpass, bridges, and viaducts. With Order 97/13, Autovie Venete opened the junction as a highway on 15 October 2013.

Features

Original road

Since the road was not originally classified as a highway and instead as a secondary extra-urban road, the road was toll free. It had four lanes, two in each direction without an emergency lane. The two sides were first separated simply by a double solid line, but in 2007 a

Jersey barrier A Jersey barrier, Jersey wall, or Jersey bump is a modular concrete or plastic barrier employed to separate lanes of traffic. It is designed to minimize vehicle damage in cases of incidental contact while still preventing vehicle crossovers resu ...

made of concrete was added in its place. The RA 17 junction did not appear on any road signs. In fact, on signs located on overpasses, the junction was referred to as "a Villesse-Gorizia connection".

From 2013

The work on the road was done to bring it up to regulations defined by Ministerial Decree 6792 of 2001 for Type A roads, which were motorways outside of the city. This allowed to increase the maximum speed on the road to 130 km/h (approximately 80 mph) from the original 80 km/h (approximately 50 mph).

Route

Notes

References

External links

{{Autostrade A34 Transport infrastructure completed in 2013 2013 establishments in Italy Transport in Friuli-Venezia Giulia