In Italy, roaring texts sound over the bridge between Sicily and the mainland, but also major doubts

A bridge over the street of Messina, which would connect the island of Sicily with the Italian mainland: the idea is as old as Italy itself. Already in 1866, shortly after the Italian unification, Stefano Jacini, Minister of Public Works of the early kingdom of Italy, threw the idea on the table. In 1981 it was started with feasibility studies that would require twenty years, but the biggest plans remained.

Silvio Berlusconi was the last prime minister to realize the project. However, the crisis on international financial markets prevented this. Berlusconis successor Mario Monti decided in 2013 that the project would not be implemented. Two years ago Minister of Infrastructure and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini breathed new life into the project. He then announced that the construction of the bridge would start “in the summer of 2024”.

Zoom in

With the same enthusiasm, Salvini now says that the first work can start in September or October. There is great skepticism about the plan in Italy, but this time it could really happen. On Wednesday, the Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning, which must approve strategic projects with public investments, gave the green light for the project. The expenses still have to be approved by the Italian Court of Audit, after which preparatory work and expropriations can in principle be started. The total price is estimated at 13.5 billion euros, fully funded from public funds.

The Italian government waves with roaring figures and speaks of a bridge that will not know its equal in the rest of the world. The bridge between the southern Italian region of Calabria and Sicily is 3.6 kilometers long with a central span of 3.3 kilometers. It will thus be the longest bridge with a few span in the world. The bridge gets three lanes in each direction, two train tracks and two breakdown strips. On the Italian mainland, in Calabria, and near the Sicilian city of Messina, two steel towers, each 399 meters high, come. The construction of the bridge will take seven years, and road users will pay toll. According to an internal document, viewed by the newspaper La Repubblicathe Italian government assumes that the investment is recovered after thirty years.

Boost for southern Italy

According to Rome, the billion-dollar project gives a boost to the whole of southern Italy, which is a socio-economic level behind the rest of the country. The government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni screens with extra jobs and growth of the gross domestic product. Moreover, the Meloni government wants to build the construction of the Earchren bridge as a strategic infrastructure, crucial for national security, and thus book it as a Defense edition that falls within NATO expenditure.

The opposition sees 13.5 billion euros in government money as a waste of public funds, which could be spent much better on other infrastructure projects in southern Italy.

Opinions are strongly divided in Calabria and in Sicily itself. Federico Basile, mayor of the Sicilian city of Messina, is a strong proponent of the bridge. “I am convinced that this is an important infrastructure project for the whole of southern Italy,” says Basile by telephone. He expects the construction of the bridge to accelerate a number of other infrastructure projects on Sicily.

This is the triumph of cement and concrete on nature and the environment

Residents who will become expropriated look at it very differently. Such as Rossella Bulsei, who lives with her family in Villa San Giovanni, in southern Calabria. “This is the triumph of cement and concrete on nature and the environment,” says Bulsei by telephone. “We have an efficient ferry service between Calabria and Sicily. This project is not necessary at all, but we decide on our heads.” Her home has been on a list of future expropriations since April 2024.

Wind Games and Earthquakes

Bulsei, who speaks on behalf of a residents’ committee that opposes the bridge, believes that the Italian government should take more account of critical voices about the necessity and feasibility of the project. For example, the bridge is planned in the area that is sensitive to severe gusts of wind, earthquakes and infiltration due to organized crime. Calabria is the birthplace of the internationally highly branched crime organization ‘ndrangheta, Sicily is home to the Mafia Cosa Nostra.

The government says it seriously takes all those factors into account. Opponents promise to resist, also through a legal route.

To share





Mail the editors