World’s longest suspension bridge costing £11bn is good news for Brits | World | News
The world’s longest suspension bridge has received approval and will be of great interest to British travellers.
Just four months ago the Italian government authorized the construction of the world’s widest suspension bridge, which will connect mainland Calabria to Sicily. However, important developments took place during this period.
The contentious Messina Bridge scheme, which carries an eye-watering price tag of £11.7bn, suffered a major setback last month, sending the project back into limbo.
If the bridge is eventually implemented across the Strait of Messina, as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is determined to achieve, it will represent an extraordinarily ambitious feat of engineering that Italy has been discussing for generations.
The massive structure, which includes twin towers rising to a height of 400 meters (1,300 feet), will extend a staggering 3.3 km (2.05 miles) over the water.
Three traffic lanes will run on either side of the centrally located twin railway tracks.
British holidaymakers exploring Italy will particularly benefit from this development as it will reduce journey times to Sicily to just ten minutes, rather than relying on ferry services which often exceed the standard 30-minute journey due to heavy queues during peak periods.
Speaking earlier this year, Meloni said: “This is not an easy task but we see it as an investment in the present and future of Italy and we love challenges when they make sense.”
Transport minister Matteo Salvini announced in August that the goal was to complete construction between 2032 and 2033. He also claimed that 120,000 positions would be created annually, which he argued would bring economic prosperity to the impoverished regions of Sicily and Calabria, located at the southern tip of Italy.
Rome received authorization for the plan in August, after years in which proposals were canceled. One of the main reasons why plans were historically suspended was fear of organized criminal corruption, including concerns about the diversion of public funds by Sicilian and Calabrian criminal syndicates.
Additional concerns about environmental damage, expense and safety are constantly raised, and given that the region is among the most earthquake-prone in the Mediterranean, engineers have promised that the Messina Strait Bridge will be able to withstand seismic activity.
And last month, another hurdle emerged after an Italian court ruled that the bridge would breach EU environmental and procurement regulations.
The following statements were included in the Court of Accounts decision: “Assumptions regarding various ‘public interest reasons’ have not been verified by technical institutions and are not supported by sufficient documentation.”
However, the Italian administration is determined not to surrender and has promised to study the decision in detail and continue its goals to make the bridge a reality. Not only will approval from the Italian Court of Auditors and both national and EU environmental bodies be required, but resistance is also likely from the 4,000 residents living on both sides of the Bosphorus.
Their homes could be in danger of being demolished, potentially leading to legal disputes over being forced to vacate their property.
Currently, the longest suspension bridge in the world is the 915 Çanakkale Bridge in Türkiye; It is a structure that connects Asia and Europe and takes only six minutes to pass.
Work began on this impressive engineering marvel across the Dardanelles in 2017 and it opened to the public just three years ago. The result was a dramatic reduction in travel times of up to 93%.
This means long 90-minute ferry journeys can now be skipped, thanks to the bridge starting from Gallipoli on the European side and ending in the Asian town of Lapseki.
