Turin ring road (Tangenziale di Torino)

The Tangenziale di Torino is the motorway system that runs around the Piedmontese capital, designated A55 «Sistema Autostradale Tangenziale Torinese» (Turin Ring Road Motorway System)^[1]. Built between 1971 and 1973 with the opening of the southern ring road and the first stretch of the northern one, it was already carrying more than four hundred thousand vehicles a day by 2004^[2], and for half a century it has remained an open ring: the eastern side, towards the hill, has been discussed for more than forty years, but has never been built^[3]. Since 1 December 2024 it has been run by the company Ivrea Torino Piacenza (ITP)^[4], which took over from ATIVA^[1].

The word itself describes the structure: the Treccani dictionary defines a tangenziale as a "fast-flow road, generally equipped with interchanges, junctions, elevated sections, etc., that skirts one side of a large city or crosses part of it, linking important points without interfering with local traffic"^[5]. In Turin it skirts three sides: west, north and south.

The origins: ATIVA and the roadworks of the 1970s

The ring road was built by ATIVA, the Autostrada Torino Ivrea Valle d'Aosta company set up on 2 August 1954, which by 1961 had already opened the motorway from Turin to Quincinetto with the toll stations of Volpiano, San Giorgio and Ivrea^[2]. In the boom years, as traffic from the car industry grew around Mirafiori and the factories of the city's industrial belt, the company committed itself to the ring-road system meant to take through traffic off the city's streets.

The pace was fast. Between September and November 1971 the entire southern ring road was opened to traffic, between Santena and Rivoli, linking the Piacenza motorway with the Susa Valley; in November 1972 the junction with the Torino-Savona motorway was completed at Moncalieri; in December 1973 the first stretch of the northern ring road was inaugurated, from Rivoli-Bruere to corso Regina Margherita. By the end of 1973 the network managed by ATIVA around the city already totalled 43 kilometres of ring road^[2].

An artery that fills up

Designed to relieve the city's urban roads, the ring road itself soon became one of the critical points of metropolitan mobility. In its own corporate history, ATIVA notes that by 1994 around three hundred thousand vehicles used it every day and that, at certain times, the situation came close to gridlock^[2]:

«around 300,000 vehicles use the artery every day, and at certain hours of the day it comes close to paralysis»

Ten years later, in 2004, daily vehicles had risen to more than four hundred thousand^[2]. The sharpest jump came in 2006: to coincide with the Winter Olympics, the completed motorway to Pinerolo came into service — its first stretch as far as None had been ready since 1992 — together with the new toll barrier at Beinasco; traffic grew by 18.2 per cent. By contrast, 2012, the year of the recession, saw a fall of 7.7 per cent^[2].

Toll barriers and checks

Unlike the ring roads of many Italian cities, Turin's is tolled. The system is semi-closed: drivers pay by passing through one of six toll stations, Bruere, Falchera, Settimo Torinese, Trofarello, Vadò and Beinasco^[6]. For daily users there is a flat monthly subscription, reserved for cars and motorcycles with electronic tolling, which allows unlimited passage through the barriers for €28.70 a month, a figure unchanged since 1 January 2018^[7].

In January 2020 ATIVA installed two fixed speed cameras on the ring road, operated by the Polizia Stradale (traffic police): one on the southern ring road towards Piacenza, at the Stupinigi interchange in Nichelino, a short distance from the Stupinigi Hunting Lodge, the other on the northern ring road towards Milan, at the corso Regina Margherita exit^[8]. They became operational on 17 February 2020, with the stated aim of reducing offences and improving safety^[9].

Maintenance is carried out with traffic still running, and so it weighs on the whole city: in July 2023 works on the southern ring road reduced the carriageway from three lanes to two between the corso Allamano interchange and the corso Orbassano interchange, with night-time closures of the entry ramps. During that period a 3-4 per cent drop in light vehicles was recorded, attributed to remote working, alongside a 2 per cent rise in heavy vehicles^[10].

Corso Marche, the inner ring road

A second axis, inside the ring, has been planned for years along corso Marche, through the territory of Turin, Venaria, Collegno and Grugliasco. The multimodal corridor is meant to run for nine kilometres from the centre of Venaria to the Drosso interchange of the southern ring road, on three overlapping levels: a rail link connecting the Torino-Lione line with the Gronda merci freight bypass and the Orbassano logistics hub, a motorway stretch linked to the existing ring road and, at surface level, an urban boulevard. The bodies involved signed a memorandum of understanding in 2005; in 2009 the redesign study was entrusted to the architect Augusto Cagnardi of Gregotti Associati International^[11].

The missing side: the Tangenziale Est

The most debated unfinished piece is the closing of the ring to the east, beyond the Po and the hill. It has been discussed for more than forty years, and a project with a road section running under the river was shelved^[3]. In 2013 a €1.5 billion proposal, with a tunnel under the Po, was tied to extending the concession for the ring road and the Torino-Piacenza motorway; it was later set aside by the city executive (Giunta) of Chiara Appendino^[12].

In June 2021 the Regional Council approved a motion, put forward by councillors Paolo Bongioanni, Davide Nicco and Maurizio Marrone, committing the Piedmont Region "to press the government to complete the Turin Ring Road"^[3]. The route envisaged would link the A21 to Piacenza with the A4 to Milan and with the A5 between Pessione and Gassino, together with the Villastellone-Santena bypass, and could lead to the closure of the Trofarello toll station^[3].

At the end of 2022 the city executive (Giunta) of Stefano Lo Russo proposed a scaled-down version: about thirty kilometres between Chivasso and Chieri to link the Torino-Milano motorway to the other motorways, discussed with the 34 mayors of the hill towns. The Metropolitan City of Turin funded the update of the feasibility study with one hundred thousand euros, but without resources to open building sites; the president of Coldiretti, Bruno Mecca Cicci, called the plan outdated and based on excessive land consumption^[12].

Management today

On 1 December 2024 ATIVA ceased its concession for the A55 and the Torino-Quincinetto motorway, which passed to the new concessionaire ITP; the historic company has been in liquidation since 3 February 2025^[1][2]. ITP, with operational headquarters in strada della Cebrosa, now manages as a single group the ring road, the A5 as far as Quincinetto, the A21 Torino-Alessandria-Piacenza, the Ivrea-Santhià link and the branch to Pinerolo^[4]. For the overall picture of the city's mobility, see Trasporti di Torino.

Chronology

• 14 October 2026 — An eight-vehicle pile-up on Turin's northern ring road, between the corso Regina Margherita and Venaria Reale interchanges, causes one minor injury and long queues in both directions. → TorinoOggi la Repubblica Torino

Sources

1. Autostrada Torino Ivrea Valle d'Aosta — ATIVA
2. La storia - Autostrada Torino Ivrea Valle d'Aosta — ATIVA
3. La Regione Piemonte pone la Tangenziale Est di Torino tra le priorità — Mole24, 16 June 2021
4. Ivrea Torino Piacenza S.p.A. — ITP – Ivrea Torino Piacenza
5. Tangenziale - Significato ed etimologia — Treccani, Vocabolario
6. Info pedaggio A55/A5 - ITP - Ivrea Torino Piacenza S.p.A. — ITP – Ivrea Torino Piacenza
7. Abbonamento A55 Tangenziale di Torino - ITP - Ivrea Torino Piacenza S.p.A. — ITP – Ivrea Torino Piacenza
8. Arrivano gli autovelox sulla tangenziale di Torino: saranno posizionati in due punti — Mole24, 23 January 2020
9. Da oggi attivi gli autovelox sulla tangenziale di Torino: sono posizionati in due punti — Mole24, 17 February 2020
10. Lavori in corso sulla tangenziale di Torino: in arrivo code e disagi per gli automobilisti — Mole24, 10 July 2023
11. Corso Marche — MuseoTorino
12. Tangenziale Est di Torino: si discute il progetto di adeguamento — Mole24, 31 December 2022