Rome, San Basilio residents in the square against the “Black Point” project: “Gualtieri closes the neighborhood”

The inhabitants of San Basilio took to the streets to demonstrate against the current version of the Black Point project that "will distort traffic on Via Nomentana and San Basilio"

ROME – “Not like this!”. The residents of San Basilio took to the streets to demonstrate against the current version of the Black Point project (BP005) which, they explain, “will overturn traffic on Via Nomentana and San Basilio”.
There are 175 road intersections considered high risk throughout Rome and on which the Municipality of Rome would like to intervene. Among these, the stretch at the height of the intersection between Via del Casale di San Basilio and Via Nomentana, the one that leads for example to Via di Casal Boccone and which between 2010 and 2019 was the scene of 13 accidents, 12 fatal.
Hence, the decision for an intervention that would significantly change traffic to and from San Basilio. Today, for this reason, the citizens especially of the areas of San Cleto, Giardino Nomentano, areas directly affected, but also of the heart of San Basilio, have decided to take to the streets to make their voices heard.

Many people of all ages took part in the procession, demonstrating a transversal concern for an upheaval that will affect traffic to schools and to workplaces. “We asked ourselves – the committees and promoters of the event explained in a social video – what would the new road system be like with the Black Point project? A disaster”. A problem, they explain, which would also concern for example “all the buses, Cotrals and trucks diverted on via Diego Fabbri that go around the entire neighborhood. To go towards San Basilio or the GRA“.
The revolutionized road system would also include a roundabout between via Fabbri and via Nomentana that citizens would not say no to. The Giardino Nomentano committee, for example, “has never been against the project regardless, on the contrary, it has always been collaborative with the Municipio IV and the Mobility Department”, they explain. However, they continue, “the greatest criticality has not been changed: the diversion of all traffic exiting via Nomentana towards the GRA on via Fabbri, Buazzelli and San Basilio, something considered unacceptable by citizens” because “it would have a devastating impact at all levels and on the lives of the people who live in the neighborhood: enormous quantity of vehicles of a consular road on a secondary neighborhood road, with Atac and Cotral, Ama, Trucks, Firefighters and ambulances that would cause problems for health and the environment in the medium-long term with many deaths and significant social damage”. And the conformation of the neighborhood would determine “such an enormous increase in flow estimated at +110%, it would produce very serious consequences” for the health of the inhabitants and on the users of structures such as schools, police stations, parishes, Inail, commercial establishments. The Committees therefore conclude that “the project would be damaging to the city and would introduce many more problems than it proposes to solve”. This has led to the decision to take to the streets to demonstrate against the risks listed.

Domenico Scarpa, Comitato Giardino Nomentano and promoter of the demonstration, stressed to the Dire agency that part of the data on road accidents “was taken when the traffic light system between via del Casale di San Basilio and via Fabbri had not yet been installed. This has instead contributed to significantly reducing the problems”. We have been trying to fight against this version of the project for 3 years, he continued, “. We have been to the council, we have had a partial change in the project” but apart from this “up to now we have not been listened to. We have been to the Lazio Region where we have been listened to by the Jubilee Commission and we are waiting for a resolution to be made where the inconsistencies are highlighted”. Instead “the council wants to continue to carry forward the project”. Scarpa then reiterated that “we are not a ‘No’ Committee. For us it is correct to put our hands at the crossroads but not in this way. All this will determine an increase in diseases due to the growth of pollutants. In the long term no one has done the analyses for the social costs”.