A bridge too far in Italy? Scepticism over planned link between Sicily and mainland • FRANCE 24

[Music] For Rosa, the coastline is more than just a backdrop. She lives in Messina, just a few meters from the sea that separates Sicily from Calabria. That’s the straight of Messina. I really feel I’m a citizen of the straight. It’s amazing to see Calabria just opposite with the sea that unites us. But this landscape could soon change because it is here that the Italian government intends to build one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in Europe, the Messina Bridge to connect the island of Sicily with the continent. I find it difficult to imagine a steel and concrete monster built here that would loom over our heads. Just over there, there’d be a 400 meter pillar. Rose’s house is in the future construction zone and would therefore disappear. It would be demolished to make way for the bridge. I live in fear. My life would be totally devastated. I would have to leave here and go where? I’ve chosen to live here and afterwards. Where could we go? Like Rosen, many other inhabitants of Msina are alarmed by this colossal project. This afternoon, no Ponte committee members are getting organized. The constitutional court still has to rule on the legitimacy and the process of the project. The committee has started a petition to get the attention of the mayor and denounce an unnecessary waste of public funds. The estimated cost for building the bridge is over 13 billion. Our region should be improved by other means and up till now nothing has been done because the funds were invested elsewhere. This bridge on the Msina Strait is a bottomless pit that will use up all the resources that should be used elsewhere. Environmentalists are also concerned by the construction project as the strait is a migratory route for more than 300 bird species. Anna Jordano is an ornithologist. She has been studying the area for more than 30 years. Many of them arrive from southern Sahara. They follow a diagonal line passing over there towards land towards the continent flying over the straight from Messina. The Strait of Messina has been designated a special protection area by the European Union to guarantee the conservation of wild bird species project. The project would be catastrophic for millions and millions of birds year after year for all species from the rarest to the most common. Obviously causing an irreversible decline in bird populations. Despite the outcry, the mayor of Msina supports the initiative. The town’s leader sees an opportunity to make Sicily more accessible and to boost the economy on this island that is one of the poorest regions of Italy. According to estimations, the construction would create over 100,000 jobs. This bridge should accelerate development infrastructure for the mero that could develop and improve transport links throughout the whole of Sicily and investment for my city. For example, the construction of a metro. Irrespective of the economic considerations, the technical challenges are huge as the strait is exposed to strong winds and is in one of the continent’s most active areas of seismic activity. Here we can see the tectonic faults on the surface that are considered active in the zone of the straight. Those in red correspond to the bridgeg’s proposed structural areas. For example, this one which is right under one of the bridg’s two pillars. The area has already been hit by devastating earthquakes like the one in 1908 that caused nearly 70,000 deaths. Earthquakes like the one in 1908 will happen again. We have estimations on when a similar strength earthquake might happen. It’s quite far away in time. We estimate in 1,00 or 1500 years. For the time being, the project is still awaiting the final administrative authorizations. If it gets a definite green light, the construction could last more than a decade. Once completed, the Msina Bridge would become the longest suspension bridge in the world.

The Italian government has approved the construction of a suspension bridge between the island of Sicily and the mainland. It would be 3,300 metres long and 400 metres high. The bridge has been designed to allow nearly 140,000 vehicles to cross it every day. This colossal project, estimated to cost €13.5 billion, has been presented by Rome as a strategic asset for NATO defence. But the initiative has received much criticism – those who oppose the plan see it as a costly waste of public funds. Our Italy correspondents Natalia Mendoza, Tommaso Marro and Charlotte Davan Wetton report.
#Italy #Sicily #Messinabridge

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24 comments

  10. There are multiple lines of issues: the corruption of this government, mafia infiltrating, whether it can be done at all (there isn't a conclusive study yet), whether it would withstand an earthquake (Messina was destroyed about a century ago), how much it would cost now for building and in the future for maintenance. Also, do we really need it? If from Sicily you need to go to Calabria, you have the ferry; if you want to go anywhere else in the peninsula, airplane is more convenient anyway. You can't spend this much money without properly addressing all these very concrete issues.

  12. 0:50 Steal and concrete monster… oh no… then again I assume she had to take a swimming steal monster to get to the main land too. Oh and don´t forget the groceries that are likely brought by Ferry as well.

  14. In Venezuela the Maracaibo Bridge was made by the same architect that made Génova Bridge, in Génova the Bridge fell apart, in Venezuela even being in a lake and suffered some clash by Oil Chargers boat, It still remains.

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