A model that works in full and that is a candidate to become the useful if not necessary rule for the management of all events, sporting and otherwise, that impact on the road system and mobility in the North East. The four stages of the Giro d'Italia, which passed through the Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia regions from 21 to 24 May, were the fundamental test of the new operational model developed by the six road and motorway concessionaires ANAS (Gruppo FS Italiane), Concessioni Autostradali Venete-CAV S.p.A, Autostrada Brescia-Verona-Vicenza-Padova, S.p.A. Autovie Venete, Veneto Strade S.p.A., Friuli Venezia Giulia Strade S.p.A., and the companies Telepass S.p.A. and Infoblu S.p.A. (Telepass Group).

The stated and achieved objective was to ensure the best possible management and coordination of the most delicate phases of the competition and the critical issues that impacted on traffic, such as closed roads and detours, parking availability and location, traffic accidents and various emergency situations.

In fact, the six operators involved in the project have set up a 'Situation Room', a 'control tower' specifically prepared at the CAV headquarters in Mestre and equipped with eight workstations, with 24 people responsible for management and coordination, also on the road, assisted by 16 technicians of the technical partner company Almaviva, already operational for the recent World Ski Championships in Cortina 2021.

The operations room collected data on mobility in the area, which was constantly fed in by the bodies and institutions involved in the passage of the race, such as municipalities, local police headquarters and consortia, as well as the three motorway concessionaires. The data thus entered into the system thanks to the Moova platform, of the technological partner Almaviva, made it possible to return in the form of an app all the information collected, which was made available to citizens and those moving around the territory.

Over the four days of the Giro d'Italia, more than 800 km were covered in the Triveneto region by almost 1,500 cyclists and insiders of the pink caravan, who crossed 6 provinces, 150 municipalities and numerous regional capitals including Verona, Padua, Treviso, Udine and Gorizia. The organisation put in place by the concessionaires made it possible to manage around 1900 events of the most complex and varied: from heavy rain along the route to road diversions, from work in progress to the transit of animals on the roadway. It also made it possible to control the access and outflow of 12 car parks and the parking of several thousand cars, as well as to promptly report road accidents and emergencies to road users, through a specific App that recorded 7,100 accesses in those days.

An infomobility platform that also involved municipal police corps and consortia in the area, allowing extremely capillary coordination with the municipalities concerned. In particular, the synergy between the Situation Room, which acted as a 'hub', and the operational centres of the local police forces located throughout the territory, made it possible to set up an unprecedented and effective cooperation, also technological, with the territory. In the future, according to the needs and requests of the Veneto Region, this connection system may have interesting developments, implementing the cooperation between network operators and control bodies.

"The Situation Room,' commented Elisa De Berti, Vice President of the Veneto Region, 'was an important test in terms of shared management of mobility monitoring and user information. Staff, technology and vehicles of the companies involved were pooled to provide a better and more efficient service to those travelling on the roads. A model applied during major sporting events such as the World Cup in Cortina and the Giro d'Italia, but paving the way for the mobility of the future. This integrated approach between the complementary competences of road operators and motorway concessionaires is the way to further increase the standards of functionality and safety for citizens".

An experiment, therefore, that becomes a competitive advantage and that, in the increasingly current perspective of Smart Road and Smart City and of greater demand for integrated services for sustainable mobility, further confirms the ability of managers and concessionaires (road and motorway) to monitor the territory, to provide information and logistical skills, with the clear intention of applying them for the management of mobility in safety during major sporting and other events that, from now on, will draw large numbers of spectators and fans to the North East.