Italy Approves Plan to Build Bridge to Sicily

 

In difficult news for Sicily's ferry operators, the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has approved a much-debated suspension bridge from Villa San Giovanni to Messina. If completed, the two-mile-long bridge would be the biggest of its kind in the world. 

The planned bridge would have two rail tracks in the center and three lanes of traffic in each direction (six total), ample space to absorb the car and walk-on passenger capacity of the cross-strait ferries that carry thousands of people per day. Longer-distance routes could also be affected if truck operators and tourists determined that a drive down the coast to the bridge is preferable to a long ferry ride from Naples or Salerno. 

The impact on ferry runs is still far off, however. Bureaucratic procedures and courtroom debates will have to be completed before the first shovel goes in the ground, and success is far from guaranteed. Similar plans have been proposed many times since the 1970s, and have run into too many difficulties to get off the drawing board. In addition to the engineering challenge of building such a long span, it will have to be constructed to survive the region's seismic activity and high winds. The $15 billion price is also much higher than it was in the previous two attempts in 2006 and 2011, and unaffordable costs sank both of those earlier initiatives. 

Local communities are also opposed to the project, in particular for the land purchases and expropriations that it would require at each end - all of which could end up in court. Land seizures will begin in September and October, Italian transport minister Matteo Salvini said Wednesday, and project completion is slated for 2033. 

Mafia involvement in the construction sector is another known project-management risk in Sicily and Calabria. In 2015, Italian police seized $1.75 billion from construction company leaders with ties to organized crime in the town of Corleone, where the Cosa Nostra has deep roots. According to prosecutors, Cosa Nostra members provided local government officials with guidance and incentives for the selection of contractors, resulting in revenue for all parties involved in the arrangement (at the expense of competing contractors).