Mayor under fire from Rome motorists as 10-year project gets underway.

Rome's mayor has come under criticism from Roman drivers over the intense traffic in the city centre following the partial closure of Piazza Venezia to facilitate works for the Metro C subway station.

In a letter to Corriere della Sera newspaper on Thursday, the centre-left mayor Roberto Gualtieri apologised for the inconvenience to motorists and commuters but insisted that the Metro C works "could no longer be postponed".

The frustration of drivers that pass through the crucial city-centre junction is compounded by the fact that the €700 million subway project is scheduled to take around 10 years to complete.

The new reality for Rome drivers as Piazza Venezia is taken over by Metro C works pic.twitter.com/o1PDDBMec7

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"We need adequate mobility infrastructure for a large capital like Rome" - Gualtieri told the Corriere - "The construction site in Piazza Venezia, the central station of Metro C, which we are finally completing, should have been opened 13 years ago according to the timetable."

After days of traffic bedlam, the city introduced new measures on Friday, obliging motorists coming towards Piazza Venezia from Via del Corso to turn right, moving the bus stop from Via del Plebiscito to Via Cesare Battisti, and increasing the number of traffic police on duty in the area.

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During a site visit last Friday, Gualtieri said: "This phase of the construction site, with the related changes to the traffic system, will continue like this for two years, then we'll change and move on to the other side of the piazza."

The current chaotic traffic situation in the centre of Rome is the result of numerous large-scale infrastructure projects underway simultaneously, notably the Piazza Pia underpass near the Vatican, as the city prepares for an influx of millions of pilgrims for Jubilee 2025.

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