Provincial road (Italy)

"strade provinciali"), abbreviated SP, is an Italian road that is maintained by provinces or metropolitan cities.

Before the entry into force of the new Italian Traffic Code (legislative decree n° 285 of 30 April 1992) the provincial classification of a road had to take place by decree of the Minister of Public Works; over the years, this has made the same procedures too centralized and therefore slower and more difficult, until the new highway code assigned the competence on classification to the regions[1] (Veneto, however, has further devolved the competences of classification and declassification to the provinces themselves).

[2] In the autonomous province of Bolzano, provincial roads are localized with the word "Landesstraße".

An example is the SP50 of Colle del Nivolet, which ceases to be a provincial road when it enters Aosta Valley territory.

d) constitute direct and important connections between provincial roads, or are recognized as necessary for the valorisation of important agricultural activitieswhich has become, with the new Italian Traffic Code:[4] The roads are provincial when they connect to the provincial capital the capitals of the individual municipalities of the respective province or several capitals of municipalities together or when they connect the capitals of municipalities to the state or regional network, if this is particularly relevant for industrial reasons, commercial, agricultural, tourist and climatic.Provincial roads are identified by a number.