Italy relaunches its bridge project between Sicily and the continent
“The bridge between Sicily and Calabria will become reality“, announced the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. “It will be the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world.“The project, described by the government as”masterpiece of Italian engineering” will fly over the Strait of Messina for 3.2 kilometers and will be intended for car and rail traffic.
Start of construction next year
The Council of Ministers adopted by decree the relaunch of the project, after “fifty years of discussion“, indicates the ministry in a press release on March 18, 2023. The construction of the work should begin in the summer of 2024. The platform will make the connection between the cities of Villa San Giovanni and Messina.
“Silvio Berlusconi launched it, then several governments blocked it and today the executive is completing this project“, continued the spokesperson. It is the Ministry of Economy and Finance which has the functions of direction, control and technical and operational supervision of the project. The bridge will be built on the basis of the authorizations obtained in 2012 and will be adapted to new safety and environmental techniques, recalled the Italian version of Vanity Fair.
A work estimated at seven billion euros
This is the bridge whose “the documentation is the most advanced in terms of environmental impact, seismic resistance (considering the area in which it is located), costs (300 million have been released) and feasibility. The bridge would have six carriageways, three in each direction, for cars, and two railway tracks in the middle“, specifies the media. Two pylons will be installed in Ganzilli and Cannitello, the narrowest places of the strait.
By connecting Europe’s largest island, inhabited by 4.8 million people, to the mainland, “the bridge will boost the Italian economy“.”It will be an ecological work and a tourist attraction“, says the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini.
For their part, several environmental associations have been critical of this infrastructure project. WWF considers the bridge a “bankrupt structure whose environmental, social and economic-financial costs are very high and unsustainable“. In total, the bridge is expected to cost seven billion euros and create “150,000 jobs“, according to the government.
