Sicily and Italy will be linked by longest suspension bridge in the world
Credit: X:@fonteufficiale5
Mainland Italy will finally be united with Sicily as the world’s longest suspension bridge takes centre stage in 2030.
Despite many years of false alarms over building a bridge between Italy and its neighbouring island, it never seemed to shift from its preliminary stages and the idea finally became obsolete in 2013. However, under Italy’s elected right-wing government in 2022, it was announced that plans for the bridge would be resurrected and that the longest suspension bridge in the world would finally become a sturdy reality.
The multi-billion euro project will be funded by the EU to whom Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni requested finance. According to the Grant Agreement, the EU will be forking out a whopping €25 million to cover 50 per cent of the executive design costs for railway infrastructure. Società Stretto di Messina, the bridge’s construction company and the Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency of the European Commission signed the the new funding proposal this week.
Longest suspension bridge between Italy and Sicily: the Romans got there first
The initiative to link Sicily and Italy are by no means limited to modern times nor was it the brainchild of modern geniuses. From Roman times, connecting the two was always a possibility being tossed about. Some historians claim that the Romans did in fact construct a rustic bridge of their own from barrels and boats, marking the ingenuity of the times. It was dictator, Benito Mussolini,who initially revived the idea from the ashes in the first half of the 20th Century. It was later brought to the table again by Silvio Berlusconi’s government in the early 2000’s and it was then that the project gained some funding from Brussels. The Messina Strait Company was awarded a contract for the construction in 2009 with the idea being to link Messina in Sicily with Calabria on the mainland via rail and road. However, in 2013 during austerity measures and economic cuts, former premier Mario Monti closed the construction company and plans went underground once again.
Plans for Messina Strait bridge have been dismissed but have gained ground
What does seem puzzling is the fact that until 2024, and amid a significant global revolution in infrastructure, the plans for the bridge have not been ubiquitously supported and until now, those wishing to cross can still only do so via plane, boat or a train carried by a ferry. The ferry service has often been criticised for being overcrowded as it carries cars, lorries and even trains across the Messina Strait. Now, it is considered that the bridge is essential to help heal Sicily’s stagnating economy and will also forge the economic gap between the richer northern regions and poorer southern regions. It will also enable the transfer of goods from cargo ships emerging from the Suez Canal onto trains in Sicily to be then transported to the north of the country – avoiding lengthy sea voyages and improving commercial logistics.
Opposition to the planning does subsist, however. Critics highlight the misuse of public funds for the project and the risks associated with its foundations in an active seismic zone. Local ecosystems would also be affected as well as the landscape which has become a bone of contention with environmentalists.
Regardless, this time, plans look promising and there look to be no more false alarms. The Strait of Messina suspension bridge is scheduled for completion in 2030 with a total cost of €4.6 billion and a record-breaking length of 3km.
In her first budget as PM in 2022, Meloni reinstated the construction company to oversee its erection. Matteo Salvini, Italy’s infrastructure minister and leader of the League coalition party said:”This is the government and legislature that have the ambition to lay the first stone and start building this blessed project.”
