Bridge on the Strait of Messina: ok to the final project, what happens now

«If you start as you are starting, the objective of the crossing between 2032 and 2033 is what the technicians foresee. Which is also the temporal period in which the first train will unite Turin and Lyon, the first train will join Fortezza and Innsbruck, and the Romans will be able to cover the distance of metro C. Let’s say that for those who believe in the cabal on 20 and 32 they can be two challenging numbers ». These are the words of the vice premier and minister of infrastructure and transport Matteo Salvini Speaking of the bridge over the Strait at the press conference after the Cipess, Interministerial Committee for economic programming and sustainable developmentapproved the final project of Bridge on the Strait of Messina.

The project

The connection between the peninsula and Sicily has been spoken since ancient times. Pliny the old man It tells of a bridge of boats and barrels. THE Bourbons They thought about it and after the unification of Italy in every legislature they were spoken of it. Mr Giuseppe Zanardelli, in 1876, said: “Above the waves or under the waves Sicily is joined to the continent”. Most of the projects are second post -war and there is an international competition of ideas from 1969.

The final solution was identified by the Strait Messina dealership company in 1992 The close company of Messina entrusts it to the Eurolink Scpa project company. He left in 2010 to stop in 2012 at the time of the Monti government. From this we left in 2023 with the center -right government to reach today’s approval. The project is the same with updates in line with current safety, health, environmental compatibility, construction technologies. According to webuilt, which will build the bridge, those expected are those on the river courses, reforestation plans and reconstruction of natural habitats in a greater proportion to what has been suggested by the ministerial guidelines. The technical commission of evaluation of the environmental impact has pronounced positively on the environmental compatibility of the final project

The Cipess resolution must go into the examination of the Court of Auditors who will have 60 days to express his opinion. The way of the works, according to what is reported by Salvini, should be between September and October, with the preparation of the construction site and the preliminary activities related to local roads, the reclamation of the war devices, to the archaeological, geognostic and geotechnical investigations.

How will the bridge be like

It will be, at least so it is on paper, the longest suspended bridge in the world, with a total length of 3,666 meters and a suspended span of 3,300 meters. The two towers placed on the ground will be 399 meters high, the two cables of cables will have the diameter of 1.26 meters with 44,323 steel wires. There will be two road carriageways with 3 lanes by direction and a double -track railway and a maximum capacity of 200 trains/day – 6,000 vehicles/hour.

The costs

The total investment is approximately 13.5 billion for the bridge, the connection works on the Sicily and Calabria slopes functional to the bridge, the new stations in Sicily which are three underground stops, the directional center in Calabria and works of mitigation and environmental compensation. Overall, about 100 thousand people should be occupied with an average of 4,300 people a year. According to the Undersecretary with delegation to the Cipess, Alessandro Morelli The bridge over the Strait of Messina will bring “23.1 billion euros of contribution to national GDP, with 36,700 stable jobs and 10.3 billion of tax revenues for the State, already in the project site of the project”.

The strangest hypotheses

The project of a tunnel Under the Strait of Messina it was presented in June 2017 by the engineer Giovanni Saccà and followed by the Sicilian deputy minister of the M5S, Giancarlo Cancelleri. It was September 2020 when the hypothesis of the cycle path ended on the tables of the then government. The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Paola De Micheli tweeted: «We have set up a commission to understand what is the best tool to connect Sicily to Calabria. To connect them on iron, on the road and with a cycle path. The work that will come must be safe and economically sustainable ». Fabio De Luigi has impersonated the dog engineer for years who also had the plush among the materials to be used to build the bridge. The imitation played precisely on the chronicle of the various hypotheses that has become not only unrealized over the years, but for unusual public opinion.

Protests and appeals

The approval of the final project will officially start the appeals that have followed the protests that for years. First of all, the approval of the Court of Auditors is still missing. Explains the Sicilian Association Instead of the bridge: «There is no final go -ahead for the bridge over the Strait. Contrary to what Salvini and its local megaphones say, no construction site is not the start, nor will the work begin. Rather, it is the beginning of a path all uphill for those who have transformed a bankruptcy project into a propaganda flag. And above all, the front of legal appeals will finally openin all national and European offices ».

Greenpeace, Legambiente, Lipu and WWF have presented a new complaint to the EU: “The environmental impact of the bridge over the Strait of Messina is certain, documented and, after years of denials, admitted by the same proposers. To overcome this impasse, a special procedure has been started which would however allow the construction of the bridge according to precise conditions set by the Community standards, conditions which however have not been respected “.

An announcement expected for the Committee Noponte Capo Peloro. «We have opened a noponte resistance garrison in Torrefaro Casa Cariddi to promote moments of meeting and struggle and to contrast above all the hoaxes like the latter. We do not believe that the approval of the bridge project is definitive. Just think At 68 observations of the Technical Scientific Committee, at the 62 requirements of the Via/Vas Commission and the previous prescriptions of 2011and above all to the still open chapter of the opinion of the European Commission for the violation of the habitat directive. Other than the game finished, only a new phase of the fight against the bridge that we intend to lead until victory opens ».