NAPLES, Italy — Hazardous ramps near the Navy’s Gricignano support site are closing for reconstruction next month.
Italian highway workers plan to make two ramps leading to the SS 7 safer by widening the exit, banking the turns, roughening the pavement and improving the battered guardrails. A Navy base security spokesman said there are a few traffic accidents on the ramps every week.
The exit from the Lago Patria/west direction and the on-ramp to the SS 7 toward Naples will be closed Jan. 7-9.
Area orientation classes warn base newcomers to take extra care on the ramps, especially when the road is wet.
“It’s fairly flat, not banked. And by nature, Italian roads have a lot of marble content,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer James Slater, base spokesman.
Since January 2001, Department of Defense personnel and their dependents have reported 15 accidents on the ramps, none of them life-threatening, Slater said. Many minor crashes aren’t reported.
Amy Dempewolf, logistical support specialist for Fleet and Family Services at Gricignano, was involved in a minor scrape on one of the ramps in the spring. She said she was slowly making her way onto the rain-slicked ramp.
“We were exiting and we started to hydroplane. I was going so slow … that I had time to say, ‘Hold on, you guys, we’re going to hit the guardrail.’ The security guys said four other people hit that guardrail the same week.
“I’m glad they’re finally fixing it.”
