Italy to build bridge between mainland and Sicily
Plans for a gigantic suspension bridge connecting Sicily with the Italian mainland as of 2032 were approved by an inter-ministerial committee last week. With a total length of 3.3 kilometres, the bridge, the cost of which has been estimated at 13.5 billion euros, would be the longest suspension bridge in the world and designed to withstand major earthquakes (a devastating earthquake destroyed the Sicilian city of Messina in 1908).
Everything moving too fast
Il Manifesto bemoans the haste with which the project was finalised:
“A few hours of discussion in the presence of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini and just over a week of studying the thousands of files of a 14-year-old project that was hastily updated following the resuscitation of the Stretto di Messina company: that was all it took for the Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning and Sustainable Development (Cipess) to give the green light for the Messina Strait Bridge project. ... A vertiginous acceleration that has been heavily criticised by environmental associations, the 700 or so families on the verge of losing their homes and all the municipal administrations (with the exception of Messina) that will be directly affected by future construction sites.”
A link between two cemeteries
In the event of a major earthquake only the bridge would remain standing, geologist Mario Tozzi warns in La Stampa:
“There will be no money left to make the provinces of Reggio Calabria and Messina earthquake-proof, where at least the public buildings (schools, offices, government agencies) need to be renovated to prevent the next earthquake from razing them to the ground. According to estimates, only a quarter of the buildings in Reggio and Messina would be able to withstand an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale. So the question is not whether a bridge can be built in the most earthquake-prone area of the entire Mediterranean region, but whether in the event of an earthquake the bridge would be the only thing left standing between two cemeteries.”