A4 Motorway | |
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Autostrada A4 | |
Autostrada Serenissima | |
Route information | |
Part of | |
Length: | 517 km (321 mi) |
Existed: | 1927 – present |
Major junctions | |
West end: | Turin |
East end: | Trieste |
Location | |
Regions: | Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia |
Highway system | |
Autostrade of Italy |
The Autostrada A4, or Serenissima, is a motorway which connects Turin and Trieste via Milan and Venice. The city of Venice (or rather, Mestre which is the "land" part of Venice) originally formed a bottleneck on the A4, but is now bypassed by the Passante di Mestre (the old route through Mestre was renumbered A57). The A4 passes through the city of Milan, where it is toll-free.
Due to the different companies that manage the different parts of the motorway, it is often referred to as formed by five sections: Turin-Milan, Milan-Brescia, Brescia-Padua, Padua-Venice and Venice-Trieste. As it runs though the whole Pianura Padana, which is a densely populated and highly industrialized area, A4 is one of the most trafficked motorways of Italy.
A4 is a dual-carriageway, six-lane motorway for most of its length. The stretch between Milano Est tollgate and Bergamo is an eight-lane motorway since 30 September 2007. The stretch from Venice to Trieste is instead still a four-lane motorway, but it is planned to upgrade this stretch over motorway to six lanes.