Widening Fifth Lane A8 Highway

As part of the design of the expansion to the third lane of the "A9" freeway: Lainate Como-Chiasso, a request was made for the construction of the widening to the fifth lane of the A8 "Milano-Laghi" freeway in the section between the interconnection with the western ring road and the interconnection with the A9 "Lainate-Como-Chiasso" freeway from Pk 5+577.38 to Pk 9+990.72. The project was divided into two lots based on the Territory's need to anticipate part of the works in order to make them functional for the EXPO 2015 events, in particular by realizing the direct connection between the highway route and the new parking areas. The Lot 1 project was contracted in June 2014 with the aim of completing the works by April 2015. The Lot 2 project was contracted later to complete the works related to the fifth lane between the Lainate interchange and the Milan North barrier. The route has a rectilinear layout that is mainly embankment with an almost flat topographical surface. The design criteria underlying the study included a lateral widening of the platform in order to create the fifth lane, adjustment of the width of the lanes, and also making the emergency lane continuous. The pavement width increased from the initial section of 36.20 m to the final design section of 45.70 m. Furthermore, in the approximately 4.5 km of highway there are, in addition to the two interconnections mentioned above, the new Lainate - Arese interchange at progr. km 6+275 and the Lainate interchange (progr. km 8+116) as well as the Villoresi service areas (progr. km 7+526).