Autostrada A3 (Italy)
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| Autostrada A2 | ||||
| Autostrada del Mediterraneo | ||||
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| Route information | ||||
| Length: | 494.9 km (307.5 mi) | |||
| Existed: | 1974 – present | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| North end: | Naples | |||
| South end: | Reggio Calabria | |||
| Location | ||||
| Regions: | Campania, Basilicata, Calabria | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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The Autostrada A2 del Mediterraneo (formerly A3) is a motorway in Southern Italy, which runs from Naples to Reggio Calabria via Salerno. It runs through three regions: Campania (171 km), Basilicata (30 km) and Calabria (293.9 km).
Due to sections not being originally constructed to anywhere near Motorway standard and to the notoriously poor conditions of maintenance, and also to the difficult terrain along some of the route, the motorway has been often taken as a symbol of the backwardness and economical problems of southern Italy. Italian historian Leandra D'Antone has defined it "a true Italian shame". The European Union declines to classify the road as a “motorway” due to the decades-long roadwork restrictions on a supposedly modern road and seeks recompense for its financial contributions.
On 22 December 2016 the Salerno-Reggio Calabria freeway was declared 'complete', 55 years after the first works started, with the opening of Larìa tunnel in Cosenza. In a ceremony held in Reggio Calabria, prime minister Paolo Gentiloni begged pardon "for the delay" and the road name was changed from "A3 Salerno-to-Reggio Calabria" to "A2 Autostrada del Mediterraneo" (Highway of the Mediterranean).
The first stretch of the road to be completed was the Naples-Pompeii section, finished on 22 June 1929. The connection onward to Salerno was completed on 16 July 1961.
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Wikipedia