Strait of Messina Bridge
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Strait of Messina Bridge is a suspension bridge that is being planned to cross the Strait of Messina—a narrow section of water between the eastern tip of Sicily and the southern tip of mainland Italy. If completed, it will be the largest in the world. The bridge has been planned for many decades, and has been originally conceived in roman times.
The bridge will be an alternative to ferry service between Messina (Sicily) and the mainland at Villa San Giovanni in Calabria and hydrofoil service from Messina to Reggio di Calabria.
Current plan
The current plan calls for a single-span suspension bridge with a central span of 3,300 m (about 2 miles). This would be more than 60% larger than the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan (1,991 metres), currently the largest suspension bridge in the world.
Plans call for six traffic lanes (two driving lanes and one emergency lane in each direction), two railway tracks and two pedestrian lanes. The height of the two towers will be 382.6 metres in order to provide a minimum vertical clearance for navigation of 65 metres. The bridges suspension system relies on two pairs of steel cables, each with a diameter of 1.24 metres and a total length, between the anchor blocks, of 5,300 metres.
The design includes 20.3 km of road links and 19.8 km of railway links to the bridge. On the mainland, the bridge will connect to the new stretch of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway (A3) and to the planned Naples-Reggio Calabria High-Speed railway line; on the Sicilian side, to the Messina-Catania (A18) and Messina-Palermo (A20) motorways as well as the new Messina railway station (to be built by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana).
A construction consortium is scheduled to be chosen in 2005, with actual construction beginning the following year. Completion is projected to take six years, at a projected cost of € 4.6 billion.
Criticism
Many critics claim that the bridge is impractical, and, with a typical Italian expression, a cathedral in the desert. The main points of opponents are:
- Neither Calabria nor Sicily are economically developed areas that would benefit from such an infrastructure. Money would be better spent on improving the local economy. Many Sicilians still don't have access to tap water, and droughts have devastating effects on the island.
- Provided the docks were rebuilt in a more convenient place, ferries would be more economical and practical.
- The Mafia is assumed to have high interests in this building site as a subcontractor. The Mafia has historically profited from large building projects in Italy, and many suspect that the bridge would turn into a cash cow for illegal interests.
- There is a long history of Italian politicians failing to deliver on promises made about the bridge. There are concerns that politicians are not competent enough to forge a consensus on decisions about such a large investment.
External link
- Bridge design site (English version) (http://www.strettodimessina.it/index-e.html)
