After centuries of “What if?” and “Maybe next year,” the Italian government has signed off on the Ponte Stretto di Messina, a record-breaking suspension bridge that’ll span the Strait of Messina to connect Sicily to the Italian mainland.
The numbers for this project are bonkers, staggering in their enormity. The bridge’s full length will hit 2.24 miles (3.6 kilometers), making it the longest suspension bridge in the world should it be realized. The towers connecting it all will stand 1,309 feet (399 meters).
Its completion date is optimistically set at 2032. The bridge will shuttle around 6000 vehicles per hour and 200 trains per day across its 60-meter-wide deck. It’ll carry three lanes of road traffic in each direction, along with two emergency lanes and a pair of railway tracks.
Italy’s Decades-Long “Bridge to Sicily” Dream Is Somehow Happening
The bridge will be held together with two robust suspension cables, each over a meter thick and composed of 44,323 steel wires.
The project is a massive undertaking that, without a doubt, will be a logistical nightmare. High winds, busy shipping routes, and frequent earthquake activity characterize the Strait of Messina. Also, as recently as 2018, Italy suffered a tragic bridge collapse, the memory of which is still fresh in people’s minds.
The €13.5 billion (roughly $15.7 billion) megaproject isn’t a done deal yet, and there’s already a vocal and mighty contingent that would rather it not be built for a variety of reasons, from environmental to safety concerns. Local opposition could still put the brakes on, and if Italian bureaucracy gets involved, which it inevitably will, expect some slowdowns.
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