A bridge between the south of Italy and the Mediterranean island of Sicily that has been on the drawing board since 1969 has been given the go-ahead.
The Italian government’s CIPESS planning and development committee has approved the project and it has officially entered the implementation phase.
Rendering of the bridge over the Straits of Messina. Credit: Eurolink
The suspension bridge will be 3,666m long and will carry three lanes of motor traffic in either direction, along with two railway tracks and a pair of service lanes. It is expected to last 200 years and will have the world’s longest suspended span (3,300m).
The project will be carried out by a concessionary company Stretto di Messina. The general contractor is Eurolink, a consortium led by Italian engineering group WeBuild (link opens in new tab) that includes the Japanese company IHI, and Spanish infrastructure operator Sacyr. The design is by the Danish consulting group Cowi.
The Straits of Messina is a site with some particular challenges, so the structure can withstand windspeeds of up to 270km/h. The suspended design was selected for its low sensitivity to earthquakes.
