Renzi promises A3 highway to be completed next year

(ANSA) - Rome, May 18 - A controversial stretch of southern Italian highway under construction for roughly 25 years, to the tune of some nine billion euros amid delays and mafia infiltration, will be completed next year, says Premier Matteo Renzi.
    The 440-kilometre stretch of the A3 highway, first targeted for modernization in 1990 by the European Union, will be finalized in 2016, Renzi pledged in an interview on RAI television on Sunday.
    About 100 kilometres are still under construction on the project but Renzi said that a new board at highway manager ANAS will "accelerate (construction) and by next year, we will conclude the work," Renzi said.
    "The telenovella of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria is about to end," said the premier. The highway linking Italy's southern region with the rest of the peninsula, was originally built in 1972 and less than 20 years later, was flagged for modernization work that was supposed to be finished by 2003.
    Countless traffic tie-ups and accidents have been blamed on the old design.
    The outgoing president of ANAS, Pietro Ciucci, defended work on the project, saying that at a cost of about 20 million to 21 million euros per kilometer, the expense was not excessive.