The prospect of building a bridge connecting the mainland to Sicily across the Straits of Messina has been a dream since ancient Roman times. However, various plans, including a short-lived idea for a tunnel, have come and gone, leaving the project in limbo. Now, the massive engineering project might actually be realized, thanks to a decree passed by the government of Giorgia Meloni last month after Transport Minister Matteo Salvini revived a plan last pushed forward when Silvio Berlusconi was prime minister.
If built, the bridge across the Straits of Messina would span two miles (3.2 kilometers) and would be the longest suspension bridge in the world. The cost of the project is 4.5 billion euros ($4.96 billion) for the bridge alone and 6.75 billion euros ($7.4 billion) for the infrastructure to support it on both sides, which includes upgrading road and rail links, building terminals, and doing the prep work on the land and seabed to "reduce hydrogeological risks" during construction, according to the plan presented to the transportation ministry.
The construction phase alone would contribute 2.9 billion euros to the national GDP and employ 100,000 people and 300 suppliers, according to Michele Longo, WeBuild's engineering director, who was invited to parliament to talk about the revived plan. "The bridge over the Strait of Messina is a project that can break ground immediately. As soon as the contract is reinstated and updated, the project can start," Longo told parliament. "The executive design is expected to take eight months, while the time needed to build the bridge will be a little more than six years."
However, there are several challenges that the project may face. Southern Italy is prone to corruption, with two major organized crime syndicates—the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta and the Sicilian Cosa Nostra—known for infiltrating construction projects. The recent arrest of Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro after 30 years on the lam in Sicily represented a victory. Denaro was against the building of the bridge, as are some other mob bosses, according to testimony from informants who contributed to Denaro's arrest, in part because the organized crime syndicates feed off poverty and underdevelopment.
Environmentalists have long argued that the bridge would be devastating to the terrain and wildlife. "In the Strait of Messina, a very important place of transit for birds and marine mammals, one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity in the world is concentrated," a spokesperson for the group Legambiente says, adding that the bridge—both during and after construction—would disrupt migration routes between Africa and Europe. The World Wildlife Fund has also campaigned against reviving the project.
Additionally, the Strait of Messina is along a fault line where a 7.1 earthquake in 1908 killed more than 100,000 people and spawned tsunamis that devastated the coastal areas on both the Calabrian and Sicilian sides of the water. It remains the deadliest recorded seismic event in Europe to date. The waters are also turbulent, and currents are so strong they often rip seaweed off the seabed, changing every six hours.
Despite these challenges, Salvini has played down concerns, saying, "I'm not afraid of criminal infiltration, we will be able to guarantee that the best Italian, European, and global companies work there." Salvini hopes to break ground by July 2024, but whether the bridge becomes a reality or not, the dream for some of building the bridge to Messina won't be put to rest until it's finished.