Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Granelli and Lipparini: "Participatory Budgeting and Neighborhood Plan guide the change of the city from small interventions to large projects"

Milan, March 5 2021 – Via Gola, the project wanted by the citizens begins. The first phase of the works will begin on March 15th with the opening of the construction site on the road section between Via Pichi and Via Segantini and then continue in the following months in the direction of the Naviglio.

The main road interventions include the arrangement of stone sidewalks, the redevelopment of parking areas which will be redesigned, and road safety interventions with raised pedestrian crossings and widening of sidewalks with the introduction of some trees and greenery.

However, the Municipality's project concerns the entire via Gola, from via Segantini to the Alzaia del Naviglio: via Gola will be completely redeveloped and removed from the degradation that has made it sadly famous, integrating it into the urban fabric of the Navigli to make it more welcoming and livable , with attention also to the nearby shared space of the former Fornace. The via Gola project in the stretch between via Pichi and Alzaia, carried out by an operator to deduct costs for building interventions, envisages, after the completion of the aqueduct reconstruction works, the redevelopment of the road with stone instead of asphalt, interventions regarding greenery, urban decoration, lighting. Specifically, green flower beds are planned along the street with trees, aromatic plants and bushes, benches, exhibition panels, bicycle racks, lighting and irrigation system in the flower beds along the street, drinking water fountains, columns with electrical sockets. The completion of the works is scheduled for December 2021.

The "Let's connect via Gola" project was born as part of the 2017-2018 Participatory Budget with the aim of integrating the street into the urban fabric of the Navigli. Among the most voted in the city with 1.448 votes (8th place in the general ranking) it was the second most appreciated among those of Municipality 6. For its construction the Municipality invested 500.000 euros, a part coming from the participatory budget and the remainder from Neighborhood Plan. The expected duration for this first phase of the works is approximately 5 months, after which half of the street will already be returned to citizens while work will continue on the other.

"Via Gola is a very important project - say the councilor for Public Works and Mobility, Marco Granelli and the councilor for Participation and Active Citizenship, Lorenzo Lipparini -. We defined it with the participation of citizens and it is a new step for us in the urban regeneration process of the entire city that we are carrying out, through the Neighborhood Plan, with large projects and smaller but extremely necessary interventions. We have chosen this method of proceeding to make what we do, where possible, a concrete response to the needs and to the desires of those who live in that part of the street, neighborhood and city".

The phases of the participatory process and the images of the project