“Dream of millions of Italians”: Salvini describes plans for a bridge to Sicily

According to Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, Italy plans to build a bridge from Calabria to the island of Sicily, “the largest public building on the European continent this century”. So said the Minister of Infrastructure on Tuesday to foreign correspondents in Rome, to whom he described the details of the project. Salvini claimed the bridge was “the dream of millions of Italians for centuries”.

The government in Rome recently decided, after years of back and forth, to try again to build a bridge to Sicily. Until now, the only way to cross the Strait of Messina – at the very tip of Italy’s boot – was by ferry.

The bridge will be 3666 meters long and 60 meters wide. The two bridge piers, from which the lanes for cars and trains are suspended via cable-stays, will be 399 meters high, as envisaged in the plan.

Upon completion, which Salvini said is scheduled for the early 2030s, about 6,000 cars per hour and 200 trains per day could cross the bridge. The planners assume that about 11 million people will use the bridge every year. Rome hopes for a total of 100,000 jobs through the mega project. The cost of the bridge, including access roads, is estimated at 10 billion euros.

The Ministry of Infrastructure has announced that the bridge can withstand earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.1 on the Richter scale and wind speeds of up to 270 kilometers per hour. Experts had recently warned of the dangers of natural forces in that seismically active area.

President Sergio Mattarella recently co-signed a government decree, which now needs to be passed into law by parliament. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition has a majority in the two chambers. Salvini said the first construction sites should open as early as summer 2024. (sda/dpa)