Italy’s Bridge over the Strait of Messina: Challenges and Opportunities

(CNN) — There is a popular saying in Italian -similar to the one used by Anglophones “when hell freezes over”- which translates as “I will do it when the Messina bridge is finished”.

The dream of a bridge connecting the peninsula with Sicily across the Strait of Messina dates back to Roman times, when the consul Metellus assembled barrels and wood to transport 100 war elephants from Carthage to Rome in 252 BC, according to the writings of Pliny the Elder.

Since then, various plans, including a fleeting idea to build a tunnel, have come and gone, like water under the bridge.

If built, the bridge over the Strait of Messina would be 3.2 kilometers long and would be the longest suspension bridge in the world.

Now the massive engineering project could come to fruition thanks to a decree passed by Giorgia Meloni’s government last month, after Transport Minister Matteo Salvini revived a plan last pushed for when Silvio Berlusconi was prime minister.

In 2006, the tender to build the bridge was awarded to a consortium led by the Italian company Salini Impregilo, now called WeBuild. When Berlusconi’s government fell that year, plans to build the bridge fell apart with his government after the next prime minister, Romano Prodi, called it a waste of money and a risk to the environment.

Since then, several governments have tried to revive him, and the current ruling coalition of Meloni, Salvini and Berlusconi included him on its list of electoral promises. When Salvini became transport minister, he made it his priority, staking his legacy on the bridge.

WeBuild, which still has the award of the tender on paper, sued the government for breach of contract after the project was halted, but remains the company most likely to be reinstated despite “expressions of interest from all over the world, including China,” Salvini told the Foreign Press Association in Rome in March, when he presented the plan.

“Those who won the 2006 tender are the most likely to continue with the final version of the project,” he said, without directly naming WeBuild.

WeBuild’s Director of Engineering, Michele Longo, was invited to Parliament to discuss the revamped plan on April 18.

“The bridge over the Strait of Messina is a project that can start construction immediately. As soon as the contract is restored and updated, the project can start,” Longo told Parliament. “Executive design is expected to take eight months, while the time needed to build the bridge will be just over six years.”

The cost of the project is 4.5 billion euros ($4.96 billion) for the bridge alone and 6.75 billion euros ($7.4 billion) for the supporting infrastructure on both sides, which includes improved road connections. and railway, the construction of terminals and previous works on the ground and the seabed to “reduce hydrogeological risks” during construction, according to the plan submitted to the Ministry of Transport.

Since 1965, 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) of public funds have already been spent on feasibility studies, according to the Italian Finance Ministry. Salvini likes to say that it will cost more “not to build the bridge than to build it.”

Fault lines and the mob

The plans may seem very advanced, but the challenges are complex.

Southern Italy is prone to corruption, with two major organized crime syndicates – Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta and Sicilian Cosa Nostra – notorious for infiltrating construction projects.

The recent arrest of the head of the Cosa Nostra, Matteo Messina Denaro, after 30 years on the run in Sicily, represented a victory.

Denaro was against the construction of the bridge, as were other mafia bosses, according to the testimony of informants who contributed to Denaro’s arrest, in part because organized crime syndicates feed on poverty and underdevelopment.

Despite this, fears persist. An anti-mafia study by the Nomos think tank, published 20 years ago and now being updated, warned that some parts of the project, such as transportation and supply, could fall under criminal control, in addition to the possibility that local mafias could demand protection money.

Salvini has played down the concerns. “I’m not afraid of criminal infiltrations,” he recently told Parliament, “we will be able to guarantee that the best Italian, European and world companies work there. There will be supervisory bodies we are working for for every euro invested in the bridge.”

There are also geophysical problems that can be even more difficult to deal with.

WeBuild posted images of the Strait of Messina bridge project. (Credit: Webuild Image Library)

The government says it will give a huge boost to the local economy, but the plan faces many challenges.
(Credit: Webuild Image Library)

The Strait of Messina lies on a seismic fault line where a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in 1908 killed more than 100,000 people and triggered tsunamis that devastated coastal areas of Calabria and Sicily. It remains the deadliest seismic event recorded in Europe to date.

The waters are also turbulent. The currents are so strong that they often pull algae from the seafloor, and they change every six hours, according to NASA, which notes that the strong wave patterns are visible from space.

Under WeBuild’s original plan, which is the only one currently being studied as bids have not been and may not be opened, the bridge deck would be built to withstand winds of up to 300 kilometers per hour, and could remain open to traffic with winds of up to 150 kilometers per hour.

There would be three vehicle lanes in each direction: two for traffic and one for emergencies, with train tracks in between. Under the current plan, 6,000 cars and trucks could pass every hour, and 200 trains a day.

The bridge would be about 74 meters above sea level and would have a 600-meter navigation channel, allowing the passage of cargo ships and even the tallest cruise ships. It would also be designed to withstand a magnitude 7.5 earthquake, slightly stronger than the devastating 1908 one.

The construction phase alone would contribute 2.9 billion euros to the national GDP and employ 100,000 people and 300 suppliers, Longo told parliament, adding that “most of these people would come from the regions of Sicily and Calabria, where unemployment rates are high.”

As for the geographic challenges, Longo told CNN that it is “one of the most dynamic stretches of water that exists between the depths and the currents, but it is also one of the most studied areas. There are millions of pages of dedicated studies to this area. We’ve read them all.” On the dangers of organized crime getting involved, he said that “nothing is impossible, but this is low risk.”

“Devastating” for wildlife

Environmentalists have long argued that the bridge would be devastating to the land and wildlife.

“In the Strait of Messina, a very important transit point for marine birds and mammals, one of the greatest biodiversities in the world is concentrated,” says a spokesman for the Legambiente group, adding that the bridge -both during and after its construction – would interrupt the migratory routes between Africa and Europe.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has also campaigned against the reactivation of the project. “The entire area of ​​the Strait of Messina is a protected area under the European Union’s Habitats Directive,” WWF Director of Institutional Relations Stefano Lenzi said in a statement. As early as 2006, before the plan was shelved, the group was preparing a lawsuit to try to arrest it for infringing on European Union protected areas.

Salvini unveils the bridge project in March. (Credit: Angelo Carconi/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Environmental groups argue that the half-hour ferry is the least disruptive route.

Salvini insists that the economic impact behind the bridge would be undeniably high, saying that cargo ships from Asia could dock in Sicily and those goods could be transported on high-speed trains to Europe, once high-speed rail is built. in Sicily, although they currently do not exist.

Public opinion on both sides of the strait remains mixed: those who are in a position to prosper from increased trade and facilitation of tourism are generally supportive, and those who are happy to keep Sicily isolated are largely opposed. .

The bridge has never been closer to being built than it is now, after Meloni signed the decree paving the way for concrete plans to be put into action. The decree will become law in June, and Salvini said he hopes to lay the cornerstone in July 2024.

The Strait of Messina has long been associated with troubled waters. For a reason Homer created the lair for the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis there. And although the only monsters are ecological and criminal, there is no doubt that, whatever happens, for some the dream of building the Messina bridge will not end until it is finished.