Italy starts building a world record bridge

A strategic infrastructure investment is underway in Italy, with plans to spend €13.532 billion to build a three-lane motorway-rail suspension bridge between Sicily and the Italian peninsula.

By developing the southern regions and implementing a project of major importance for the whole country,

According to preliminary calculations, the crossing would be used by six thousand vehicles per hour and two hundred trains per day.

The bridge will be linked to the motorways in the area

The bridge is designed to withstand winds of more than 200 kilometres per hour and earthquakes of more than seven on the Richter scale.

On the Calabria and Sicily sides of the bridge, a further 40 kilometres of access roads will be built to link up with the region's motorways.

The seventy-two metre high structure will have two towers, each nearly four hundred metres high, at each end of the bridge to allow ships to pass through. The latter weigh 55,000 tonnes. The bridge will stand on a circular reinforced concrete base. It will also provide a navigable width of 600 metres.

A high-speed railway is also being built

At the same time as the bridge, the transport network in southern Italy is being upgraded with the creation of new high-speed rail lines.

Construction work could start as early as October and the handover could take place in 2032 or 2033.

At present, the crossing between Villa San Giovanni in Calabria and Messina in Sicily is made by ferryboat, which takes between two and three hours by car or rail, but sometimes more. It will take fifteen minutes to cross the bridge.