REGGIO CALABRIA – Will the Messina Strait suspension bridge connecting Italy’s mainland to the island of Sicily finally be built? 

 Plans for the controversial 30-year on-off bridge project, last abandoned over budget constraints under the Monti Government in 2013, are being revived.

 Minister of Sustainable Infrastructure and Mobility Enrico Giovannini, speaking Wednesday at a hearing of the joint Environment and Transport Commissions of the Chamber, offered a road map for the project, including the drafting of a technical and economic feasibility study.

 “The first phase could be completed by the spring of 2022 to launch a public debate and reach a shared choice and highlight the resources in the 2023 budget law,” Minister Giovannini said.

 To carry out that study, "a loan of 50 million is available" allocated under budget law allowing for “the establishment of a working group dedicated to supporting and coordinating the entire process."

 The feasibility study will “compare different solutions,” namely the single-span or three-span bridge project.

 A report from an expert panel, delivered to the government April 30, favours the latter design for its lower environmental impact and “presumably lower costs.”

 Among the “profound reasons” to build the bridge, analysis of the pre-Covid demand for mobility showed that “the Strait of Messina traffic is significant compared to the national scale: 11 million passengers, 0.8 million heavy vehicles and 1.8 million light vehicles every year,” the group of experts said.

 Based on this, “the current average strait crossing time is comparable to the travel time of a car, if we also consider the cost, to travel from 100 to 300 kilometres.”

 For this reason, alongside the bridge project, the Government intends “to proceed with a series of actions” to be completed by 2025 to “help citizens and businesses improve wellbeing and competitiveness, especially by modernizing the railway transhipment system.”

 The feasibility study will likely be entrusted to Italferr (a company of the FS group).

 Minister Giovannini said the government is planning an unprecedented concrete investment for the South, to be completed by 2026.

 “I believe the last thing that can be blamed on this government is a lack of attention to the South,” he said. “It is not true that we do not want to invest. On the contrary, we are investing a great deal in the South to make up for historic delays.”

 cc