The idea of building an eastern bypass outside the capital of Lombardy has been the subject of much road-related and socio-political debate since the 1960s, as shown by the various planning proposals drawn up by the Milan Intermunicipal Plan (PIM). At the end of the 1980s, with the impressive and constant growth of traffic on the strategic node of East Milan, the problem of building a new motorway infrastructure returned with a vengeance, with a concept connected to the Special Procedures planned for the Genoa Expo ’92. In the same years, the PIM, through the Proposal for a Territorial Master Plan for the Milan area drawn up by the Province (1991), took up the idea again, hypothesising a new system of ring roads outside Milan, along the Melegnano-Binasco-Abbiategrasso-Magenta route.

In the early 1990s, the project for a new outer ring road in the eastern quadrant of Milan was included in the First Programme of Works of Strategic Interest for Italy while, in early 2000, the Lombardy Region promoted the feasibility study for the Tangenziale Est Esterna, entrusting the task to IReR and Centro Studi PIM.

With the establishment of the company TEM (Tangenziali Esterne di Milano S.p.A. – 19 February 2002), the entrepreneurial idea of carrying out the work using the Project Financing formula came to life and became a reality. This financing technique involves the establishment of a company that draws on the financial resources of third parties, who provide the economic resources based on the validity and reliability of the project and the quality and seriousness of the managerial organisation.

On 16 June 2003 TEM S.p.A. submitted a technical project (the route), an economic project (a business plan), and a financial project (how to raise resources) to ANAS to receive recognition as Promoter, pursuant to Art. 37 of the “Merloni Law” (11 February 1994): this was a concrete feasibility proposal for the new Tangenziale Est Esterna in Milan, the result of a careful and detailed investigation of the territory, traffic and possible technical/architectural and environmental developments that could make this new motorway a cutting-edge work of excellence in that sector.

Following the proposal for the construction of the new motorway project submitted by TEM, on 21 February 2003 ANAS deemed the project submitted by TEM S.p.A. to be in line with the work’s nature as national interest and, therefore, TEM S.p.A. was recognised as the “Promoter, pursuant to the Merloni Law”. Considering also the opinions of the Local Authorities involved, from which came acknowledgement of the serious critical road situation affecting the east of the Milan Metropolitan Area, the Lombardy Region, also on the basis of the technical investigations carried out by the permanent interdepartment working group set up to assess the project at the regional level, expressed in an initial consultation a favourable opinion both on the approval of the Preliminary Project and on the relative environmental compatibility of the work.

In July 2004, the new Preliminary Project and the new Environmental Impact Study were presented, with the adjustments requested by both the Region and the Special EIA Committee.

In 2008, the tender for the concession of the Tangenziale Est Esterna di Milano was called, but no bid was submitted by the deadline: as a result, the binding offer of the Promoter TEM S.p.A. prevailed and, in January 2009, the special-purpose company named Tangenziale Esterna S.p.A. was established with the corporate purpose of entrusting and executing the concession contract for the design, construction and management of the new Tangenziale Est Esterna di Milano (TEEM), awarded through a Project Financing procedure by the client Concessioni Autostradali Lombarde S.p.A. (CAL).