Italy agrees on the project to build the longest suspended bridge in the world

Italy cleared the road on Wednesday to build the largest suspension bridge in the world that connects the Italian mainland with Sicily in a huge infrastructure of 13.5 billion euros (15.5 billion dollars) that has been long delayed due to discussions about its scope, earthquake threats, environmental impact, and an overlapping mafia.

Transport Minister Matteo Salvini said at a press conference in Rome, after a committee supervising the strategic public investments agreed that the Strait of Missina Bridge will be “the largest infrastructure project in the West.”

Prime Minister Georgia Meloni said the bridge “will be a engineering symbol of global importance.”

Salvini was martyred in studies that show that the project will create 120,000 jobs annually and accelerate growth in the southern economically late, where billions of investments are made on roads and other infrastructure projects associated with the bridge.

Initial work can start between late September and early October, once the Audit Court in Italy is opened, with the expectation of construction next year. Despite the bureaucratic delay, the bridge is expected to be completed between 2032-2033.

The bridge can count towards the goal of spending on NATO

The Messina Bridge Strait has been approved and canceled several times since the Italian government first requested proposals in 1969. The administration of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni revived the project in 2023, and this represents the farthest phase of the ambitious project – which the Romans perceive first.

“From an artistic point of view, it is a very wonderful engineering project,” said Salvini.

The Measurement of the Missina Bridge is about 3.7 km (2.2 miles), with the possibility of suspended implementation 3.3 km (more than 2 miles), bypassing the Canaachel Bridge in Turkey, which is longer, by 1,277 meters (4,189 feet).

With three car corridors in each direction surrounded by a double-track railway, the bridge will have the ability to carry 6000 cars per hour and 200 trains per day-which reduces time to cross the strait with the phrase from 100 minutes to 10 minutes by car. Salvini said that the trains will save 2/12 hours at the time of crossing.

The project can provide a boost for Italy’s commitment to raising defensive spending to 5 % of the GDP targeted by NATO, as the government indicated the classification of the bridge as related to defense, which helps it to meet a 1.5 % security component. Italy argues that the bridge will constitute a strategic corridor for the movements of fast forces and the deployment of equipment on the southern wings of NATO, which qualifies it as a “security infrastructure”.

Salvini confirmed the intention of classifying the project as a double use, but he said that this was up to the ministers in Italy and the economists.

A group of more than 600 professors and researchers signed a letter earlier this summer opponents of military classification, noting that such a step requires additional assessments to see if it could stand up to military use. Opponents also say the appointment will make the bridge target.

Fears of organized crime

Environmental groups submitted complaints with the European Union, noting fears that the project will affect migratory birds, noting that environmental studies have not shown that the project is a general necessity and that any environmental damage will be exposed.

The original government decree reactivated the bridge project, the language of giving control of the Ministry of Interior to control measures. However, the president of Italy insisted that the project remains subject to anti -combating legislation that applies to all infrastructure projects on a large scale in Italy out of concerns that the designated arrangement will weaken controls.

Salvini pledged that preserving organized crime outside the project was the highest priority, saying that it would adhere to the same protocols used at the 2015 World Exhibition and the upcoming Milan Courtina 2026 games. “We need to pay attention to the entire supply chain is not executed for bad actors,” he said.

The project was granted to a consortium led by Webuild, a group of Italian infrastructure that initially won the bridge building in 2006 before it was later canceled. The Canakkale Bridge, which was opened in 2022, was built using an engineering design similar to the design that was developed for the Messina Bridge, including the wing profile and the shape of the deck that resembles the fountain fountain fighter with holes to allow winds to pass through the structure, according to Webuild.

Treating concerns about building the bridge on Missina’s mistake, which led to a deadly earthquake in 1908, Webuild confirmed that the suspension bridges are less likely to be the structural standpoint of seismic forces. She noted that such bridges were built in an active areas of Zalawi, including Japan. Türkiye and California.

“The Messina Bridge Strait” will be a transformation of the entire country. “