The Via Roma tunnel has reached the Supreme Court of Cassation. The Municipality of Cagliari has decided to appeal to the Supreme Court the ruling of the Cagliari Court of Appeal that ordered it to pay €582,734.93, plus interest, to the Ciro Menotti National Production and Labor Consortium and World Trade Srl, the companies that were supposed to build the underground parking lot, approved by Emilio Floris's government and blocked by Massimo Zedda during his first term.

The legal representation of the Palazzo Bacaredda administration has been entrusted to lawyer Massimo Proto, who will be representing the Municipality in the final phase of a legal battle that has been ongoing since 2012.

The tender for the project, which, according to the city's then-administrative authorities, was supposed to solve the traffic and parking problems in the heart of Cagliari, was awarded in 2008. On paper, the Region had allocated €140 million.

The contract was signed in June 2010. The addendum, containing the parties' obligations, was signed in May 2011. Shortly afterward, elections were held, and Massimo Zedda became mayor. And the tunnel had never convinced him. In August, his new council, assessing the "need to further investigate certain technical issues regarding the existence of the conditions for the work to be carried out," had instructed the RUP not to proceed with the work, pending further investigation. In May 2012, the decision was made: no addendum, the tunnel was not to be built.

This resulted in a complex dispute, with the company seeking compensation for damages. The legal issue revolves around one point: if the Municipality exercised its right of withdrawal by halting the work, it must pay. Otherwise, it must not.

The Cagliari Court, which ruled in 2020, upheld this second theory. However, the consortium appealed the verdict. The Court of Appeal, in recent months, overturned the first-instance ruling, ordering the Municipality to pay €582,734.93, plus interest.

But the City Hall isn't having it. And the appeal has been lodged with the Supreme Court of Cassation. The money to pay the lawyer will be taken from the fund created during the last City Council meeting, when €1,168,000 was set aside (the result of applying the €780,000 surplus and co-financing of €388,000) specifically to cover interest and legal costs arising from the Court of Appeal's ruling. Via Roma remains at the center of Cagliari's politics.

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