Road Buffer Zones

Buffer zone: a strip of land, outside the road boundary, subject to constraints by the owners of the land on construction, buildings, fences, crops, deposits and similar items. (Italian Highway Code, Art. 3 of Italian Legislative Decree 285/1992).

Road buffer zones, regulated by the Italian Highway Code (Italian Legislative Decree no. 285/1992) and its implementing regulations (Italian Presidential Decree no. 495/1992), prevent the existence of material obstacles emerging from the ground and that are likely to constitute, due to their proximity to the roadway, a hazard to traffic safety and the safety of persons, and to ensure a buffer strip that can be used, if necessary, by the concessionaire for the execution of works, for the setting up of worksites, the deposit of materials, the construction of ancillary works, without limitations related to the presence of buildings.

There is a ban on building within the buffer zones.

The dimensions of the buffer zones are mandatory, as reiterated in ANAS Circular no. 109707/2010 of 29 July 2010 (click to view document).

Dimensions of motorway buffer zones

Since the buffer zones are subject to urban planning constraints, it is up to the Municipal Administration to calculate and identify them in the urban planning framework and not to issue building authorisations for projects within buffer zones.

The distances from the road boundary to be respected in construction, reconstruction following complete demolition or road-facing expansion are:

• 60 m  outside of built-up areas
• 30 m  outside of built-up areas, but within the areas not subject to a building ban or eligible for transformation by general urban planning, if said framework can be implemented directly, or if for such areas the implementing urban planning framework is already in force
• 5 m  outside of built-up areas, limited to the construction or reconstruction of boundary walls, of any nature or consistency, lateral to the roads
• 30 m  within built-up areas
• 3 m  within built-up areas, limited to the construction or reconstruction of boundary walls, of any nature or consistency, lateral to the roads

Built-up area: a group of buildings, bordered by access roads with specific start and end signs. A group of buildings is defined as a continuous grouping, even if interspersed with streets, squares, gardens or similar, consisting of no less than twenty-five buildings and areas of public use with vehicular or pedestrian access to the road. (Italian Highway Code, Art.3). The delimitation of the built-up area is defined by each Municipality by means of its own resolution.

Road boundary: the boundary of the road as shown on the deeds of acquisition or the land acquisition strips of the approved project; failing this, the boundary is the outer edge of the drainage ditch or gutter, where existing, or the foot of the slope or if the road is built up or the upper edge of the embankment if the road is excavated. (Italian Highway Code, Art.3). This boundary coincides mainly with the line of the existing fences and also with the boundary of motorway property areas (as per the attached plans).

The Motorway Concessionaire is tasked with ensuring that this constraint is respected and, in the event of violation, will promptly notify the Municipality of infringements within its remit.

For this reason, in November 2018 all Municipalities affected by the route were sent plans for the A58 motorway, in which both the motorway boundary (shown in the attached plans in green) and the property boundaries indicated above (shown in the attached plans in red and defined “…not demarcated with fencing or identified by other elements: such as walls, soundproof barriers, etc.)”, which each Municipal Administration must take into account within the scope of their procedures, mentioned above, and consequently in the identification of the A58 buffer zones.

As regards, on the other hand, the slip roads to the tollbooths on the A58 motorway, the provisions of the Italian Highway Code apply in relation to “B” roads (for the SP 103 “Cassanese”, under the responsibility of the Metropolitan City of Milan) and “C” roads (for connections to the Gessate and Paullo tollbooths, under the responsibility of the Tangenziale Esterna S.p.A, at the Pessano con Bornago tollbooth, under the authority of the Province of Monza/Metropolitan City of Milan, and at the Vizzolo Predabissi tollbooth, under the authority of the Metropolitan City of Milan/Province of Lodi).

Directive of CAL S.p.A. for the submission of applications for interventions in buffer zones not constituting construction

It is also worth highlighting the Directive issued by Società Concedente Concessioni Autostradali Lombarde – CAL (prot. no. CAL-260717-00005), which can be consulted by clicking here, concerning the submission of applications for works in the buffer zone “not constituting construction”.

This Directive concerns the procedure to be adopted in cases of submission of applications to the aforesaid Concessionaire, by private parties through the competent Municipality, for the realisation of works “not constituting construction” within the motorway buffer zones.

In this regard, please see ANAS Circulars no.109707/2010, no.86754/2011 and no.82481/2011 (click to view documents).

Additional information on TEEM environmental mitigation areas

Finally, it is worth mentioning that for the environmental mitigation areas, built as part of the TEEM Project, currently under the responsibility of the Concessionaire or the Local Authorities, even if located beyond the fencing, it is the obligation of Tangenziale Esterna S.p.A. and the Authorities themselves to provide for their protection and safeguarding.

Therefore, even on the portion of these areas that are outside the motorway buffer zones, the aforementioned obligation on safeguarding applies, in order to prevent them from being compromised and/or even reduced in size.