The longest suspension bridge in the world is scheduled to connect Sicily to the Italian mainland from 2032. Despite criticism of the megaproject, construction across the Strait of Messina is now set to begin.
Daniele Ialaqua also believes that things are getting serious. The environmental activist stands on the bank in the north of Messina and points to the place where the bridge is to be built. “The date of the European elections will probably lead to a symbolic opening of the construction site,” he fears. “We will be present there with our protests,” he announces.
Ialaqua is the face of the resistance initiatives against the bridge over the Strait of Messina. The 61-year-old teacher has been fighting against the megaproject for almost four decades. And I don’t want to admit defeat yet.
One of his opponents is Pietro Ciucci. The head of the semi-public bridge company Stretto di Messina sits in his office on the first floor of the company headquarters and exudes calm confidence. “We’re getting started,” says Ciucci. The project plans from 2011 have been updated and the bridge company’s board of directors has finally approved it. The goal is to open the first construction sites in summer 2024.
Pietro Ciucci, head of the bridge construction company, says construction will begin in the summer.
No construction project was discussed for longer
No construction project has been discussed longer in Italy than the bridge that is supposed to connect Sicily with the Italian mainland. In 1969, more than 50 years ago, the Italian government launched the first ideas competition to build a bridge across the strait.
Plans in the recent past, for example under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, were overturned by subsequent governments, among other things for financial reasons. The often short term of government in Rome made long-term planning difficult.
The government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and in particular the responsible transport minister Matteo Salvini have now declared the project a national prestige project. The construction, says Salvini, “will be a huge step for Italy, for which our children will thank us.”
Longest suspension bridge in the world
Italy’s budget has 700 million euros available to start construction; the bridge is expected to cost a total of 13.5 billion euros. Measured by the planned span of 3.3 kilometers, the longest suspension bridge in the world is to be built. Four lanes plus two hard shoulders are planned, with two high-speed railway tracks in the middle. According to Ciucci, part of the bridge project also includes the construction of a subway that will connect Messina with Villa San Giovanni and Reggio Calabria on the other side of the strait.
Around 200 trains per day are expected to cross the bridge, and around 6,000 cars and trucks per hour. Completion is scheduled for 2032 and will enable uninterrupted train or car journeys from Berlin to Palermo. By train it would then only take six hours from Rome to Palermo instead of the current ten to twelve hours.
Sicily’s economy is hopeful
The bridge is longed for by the Sicilian economy, which feels cut off from Italy and the rest of Europe. Until now, all goods have to be transported to and from Sicily by truck, ferry or plane. “Unfortunately, we have been living with this structural disadvantage compared to the competition on the mainland for ages,” complains Pietro Franza, head of the Confindustria business association in Messina. The situation would change with the bridge; the construction would be “a huge opportunity” for Sicily.
Franza believes that the island’s economic output could “at least double” thanks to the bridge. Sicily would have the chance to become a “hub” for trade between “Africa, which is likely to grow strongly in the coming decades” and Northern Europe.
If Sicily were connected to the mainland, Franza’s vision was that ships in the Mediterranean would no longer need to “go to Rotterdam or other ports in the north”, but could send their goods from Sicily on a journey through Europe – with a time gain of three to four days.
Environmentalist Daniele Ialaqua considers the Messina Bridge to be a major threat to migratory birds. 100,000 could die there every year.
Warning of earthquakes and dangers to nature
Environmentalists like Daniele Ialaqua, on the other hand, see great dangers in the project. The strait is an area at high risk of earthquakes. The bridge would not be able to cope with an earthquake catastrophe like the one in Turkey last year.
The construction project is also an ecological problem. Because one of the three most important migratory bird routes in the Mediterranean runs through the Strait of Messina, says Ialaqua. There is a risk that several 100,000 birds will die on the bridge every year. “This area is highly sensitive and vulnerable. The bridge would increase the risks and dangers,” fears Ialaqua.
The head of the bridge company Ciucci, on the other hand, points out that 60 million euros of the construction costs will flow into accompanying environmental monitoring. Resting places would be created for migratory birds, and the lighting on the bridge would be planned in such a way that the fish below would not be disturbed.
The bridge is also up to all other challenges, says Ciucci. The “earthquake characteristics of the area” are known, as is the often strong wind. This is exactly what the planning of the bridge is aimed at. According to Ciucci, even an earthquake of magnitude 7.1, like the one that occurred in Messina around 100 years ago and cost the lives of around 200,000 people, would not harm the bridge.
Environmentalists have announced new protests for the coming weeks. Among other things, against the planned demolition of 300 buildings to build the bridge, which would affect several thousand people. The bridge pylon on the Sicilian side is to be built in an area that was previously heavily inhabited. “I think they are now relying on a quick, symbolic laying of the foundation stone. We might let them lay the first stone – but not the second,” says Daniele Ialaqua.
Jörg Seisselberg, ARD Rome, tagesschau, March 9, 2024 11:17 a.m