Italy has officially cleared the way for the construction of the world’s longest suspension bridge, connecting the mainland with the island of Sicily. The €13.5 billion ($15.5 billion) Strait of Messina Bridge project, long stalled by environmental concerns, seismic risks, and debates over mafia interference, has now been approved by an interministerial committee overseeing strategic public investments.
“The biggest infrastructure project in the West,” is how Transport Minister Matteo Salvini described the bridge at a press conference in Rome, following the decision by the Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning and Sustainable Development (CIPESS).
Premier Giorgia Meloni hailed the initiative as a “symbol of global significance,” adding to the national momentum behind one of Italy’s most ambitious projects.
First proposed in 1969, the Strait of Messina Bridge has been approved and cancelled multiple times over the decades. Though envisioned as far back as Roman times, it is only now, under the Meloni administration, which revived the project in 2023, that the bridge has reached its most advanced stage.
Once completed, the bridge will measure nearly 3.7 km (2.2 miles), with a suspended span of 3.3 km (over 2 miles), surpassing Turkey’s Canakkale Bridge by 1,277 meters (4,189 feet), making it the longest suspended span in the world.
“Today, Italy has shown once again how it can come together around a mega project that will be transformative for the whole country. The decision made by CIPESS to approve the [project] marks the start of a new season of vision, courage and confidence in the capabilities of Italian industry and the entire infrastructure sector,” said Pietro Salini, Chief Executive of Webuild, the project’s lead contractor.
“We are particularly proud to be part of the Bridge project, strongly promoted by the Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport and the Italian Government, and firmly supported by the concessionaire company Stretto di Messina – as leader of the general contractor, Eurolink, working together with the world’s best engineering talent and a vast and excellent Italian supply chain from the north to the south of the country,” Salini continued. “The Bridge will bring about a great infrastructure project spread out across many work sites contemporaneously. It will stimulate growth, employment and lawfulness across southern Italy. The project will be fitted with the most advanced technologies for safety and maintenance. It will also be built according to the highest international engineering standards. It will serve as an extraordinary opportunity for the future of young people. Talented Italian engineers, managers and workers from the sector will finally have the possibility to work in their home country on one of the most challenging projects in the world.”
The bridge will serve as the centerpiece of a broader integrated infrastructure system. This includes more than 40 kilometers of new roads and rail lines, three underground train stations, around ten viaducts, various tunnels, and a cutting-edge multifunctional center. These complementary works aim to transform regional mobility and integrate Sicily more fully into the national and European transport networks.
The bridge will also connect directly to key rail corridors, including the existing Palermo–Catania–Messina line in Sicily and the planned Salerno–Reggio Calabria high-speed/high-capacity railway.