Upper Adriatic Highways, traffic forecast for Dec. 8 weekend

(ANSA) - UDINE, 06 DIC - As the winter holiday season approaches, traffic on Autostrade Alto Adriatico's (Upper AdriaticHighways) network intensifies. It starts already with the long Immaculate Conception Weekend.
    Beginning tomorrow afternoon, Thursday, December 7, increased and heavy traffic will occur on the A4 highway along the Venice-Trieste route toward Udine/Trieste. This situation is due to the combined effect of holidaymakers' departures to mountain resorts with the opening of the ski season and the return of commercial vehicles.
    According to the forecast, traffic is expected to flow normally again on December 8, 9, and 10. Due to vacationers returning home after the Immaculate Conception Weekend on Monday, December 11, and Tuesday, December 12, vehicular flows will again be heavy on the A4 highway, but in the direction of Venice, mainly due to the arrival of articulated trucks from Northeast Europe.
    Traffic bans for heavy vehicles will be in effect from 9 a.m.
    to 10 p.m. on Friday 8 and Sunday 10. Provisional data in hand, from January 1 to November 30, more than 2.5 million more vehicles were recorded on the Upper Adriatic Highway network than in the same period last year, with an increase in flows of +5.79%, compared to 2022. A total of 46 million vehicles have been recorded so far. Of these, about 33 million (+7.09%) are light vehicles, and 13 million are articulated vehicles (+2.61%).
    The figure for kilometers traveled on the route UAH is in charge of is more striking: about 1 billion and 644 million kilometers traveled by light vehicles and 787 million by heavy vehicles. Against this increase, overall accidents are down slightly: 582 this year compared to 584 in the same period in 2022. Accidents with injuries have decreased by 18: 139 in 2023 and 157 in 2022. Fatalities drop dramatically: from 14 in 2022 to 4 this year. (ANSA).