Strait bridge over Messina: there is the go-ahead from the Council of Ministers. The Ministry of Infrastructure announces that the Strait of Messina Company will be reborn for the construction of the great work, which will have a new and more modern governance. A solid participation of the MEF and MIT is expected, confirming the importance that the government attaches to the stable connection between Calabria and Sicily. Specifically, explains the dicastery, led by Matteo Salvini, we start again from the final project of 2011 which will be adapted to the new technical, safety and environmental standards. The new authorization process will have to give body and shape to the longest cable-stayed (suspended) bridge in the world which will extend for 3,2 kilometres. A great work that has been talked about for decades and which, according to the Meloni government, will represent the flagship of the Italian engineering art.
Bridge over the Strait
Therefore, the Council of Ministers approved a first draft decree that takes us back to 2012. In practice, to when the construction of the bridge had been stopped and the company put into liquidation. With its 'green light', the government used the precautionary formula "subject to agreements" and "the technical aspects are still being defined". However, it starts again from the final project approved 11 years ago, that of the longest cable-stayed suspension bridge in the world. Project to be updated and adapted to the latest technical, environmental and safety regulations. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, declared that "it will be the most beautiful, greenest and safest single span bridge in the world". A bridge certified by the "greatest engineers from the best universities". Salvini spoke of a "historic day" for all of Italy. While the president of Forza Italia, Silvio Berlusconi, promised: "This time they won't stop us" recalling that his government had already tried to build the bridge 20 years ago.
The goal now is to arrive at a new executive project by 31 July 2024 and then start work by the end of that year. The decree, according to the draft circulated in recent days, also resumes the old procurement contracts canceled by the Monti government. Starting with the one with Eurolink, the consortium led by Salini (today Webuild) which won the international tender. At the Ministry of Infrastructure there is a model of the bridge and Salvini posed in front of it for a photo with the presidents of the Regions on both sides, Roberto Occhiuto for Calabria and Renato Schifani for Sicily. For Occhiuto "the bridge over the Strait will be a great opportunity for the South, but it will be necessary to work in parallel to better develop the indispensable complementary works". The technical implementation will take 5 years. It will start from the authorizations already obtained in 2012 for the railway and road connections, explained the deputy minister Edoardo Rixi.
There are those who say no
There have always been many parties, associations and movements opposed to the construction of the great work. For example, the Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra organized a protest flash mob in front of Montecitorio. The demonstrators carried placards that read: "A waste of resources worth 10 billion euros" and indicated how with this money, for example, 175 intercity and 500 regional trains could be purchased. The WWF also rejected the bridge due to the "very high and unsustainable environmental, social and economic-financial costs". The environmental associationa recalls how the area of the Strait is included in two "very important Special Protection Areas".
(Highlighted Occhiuto, Salvini and Schifani admiring the model of the bridge / Photo Ansa)
