Posted on 08/12/2025 12:42:01 PM PDT by Red Badger
A concept design of the Strait of Messina Bridge (Ponte Stretto Messina) between Sicily and mainland Italy. Image credit: WeBuild Group
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Italy's long-standing dream to build the world’s longest suspension bridge between the mainland and the island of Sicily has just moved one step closer to becoming reality.
On August 6, the Italian government gave its final approval to build the Strait of Messina Bridge (Ponte sullo Stretto di Messina) between Sicily to the southern region of Calabria on the tip of Italy's boot.
Costing an estimated €13.5 billion ($15.8 billion), the bridge is planned to stretch 3,300 meters (10,827 feet) across the strait, supported by two 399-meter (1,309-foot) tall towers.
Suspension bridges like this use cables hung from these towers to carry the weight of the roadway. The load is transferred from the deck through the cables to the towers, which then distribute the forces down into the ground, allowing the bridge to span long distances without the need for too many supports in the water.
The bridge is set to have three traffic lanes in each direction, including an emergency lane, two service lanes, and two rail tracks with sidewalks. Along with the bridge itself, the project also involves constructing an integrated infrastructure network, featuring 40 kilometers (25 miles) of new roads and rail lines, three underground train stations, about ten viaducts, and multiple tunnels.
Italy's Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, one of the project’s big political backers, has reportedly dubbed it “the biggest infrastructure project in the West.”
“Today, Italy has shown once again how it can come together around a mega project that will be transformative for the whole country,” Pietro Salini, Chief Executive of Webuild, the Italian engineering company tasked with the job, said in a statement.
“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,” he added.
An astronaut onboard the International Space Station took this picture of Italy and its island of Sicily while cruising over the Mediterranean Sea. Image credit: ISS/NASA
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If and when completed, it will be significantly longer than that of the world’s current longest suspension bridge, the 2,023-meter (6,637-foot) long 1915 Çanakkale Bridge that connects the European and Asian continents within Turkey.
The “if and when” of building a bridge across the Strait of Messina has long been a point of debate. Discussions about such a crossing literally date back to ancient times. Nearly 2,000 years ago, a famed Roman scholar called Pliny the Elder recounted a story of a temporary bridge built to transport war elephants captured from Carthage in 251 BCE. While this is almost certainly a legend, the idea has endured through the centuries.
The notion resurfaced in the 1860s during Italy’s unification and continued to captivate politicians well into the late 20th century. In the current era of right-wing populism, the project has been revived once more, promoted as a catalyst to stimulate Southern Italy, which remains considerably less developed than the north.
Many remain unconvinced. Local opposition groups and thousands of protestors have voiced a range of concerns, from environmental and aesthetic impacts to arguments that the funds could be better spent elsewhere. Some cost-benefit analysis indicates the megaproject may never regain enough revenue to offset its multibillion-euro price tag. It’s estimated that over 440 properties on both sides of the bridge will need to be expropriated, a controversial move currently being challenged in the courts.
Even without politics getting in the way, building a suspension bridge of this scale poses significant engineering challenges. The Strait of Messina is known for strong winds, seismic activity, and deep waters, all of which complicate construction and long-term stability. Engineers will need to ensure the structure can withstand earthquakes, which aren't unheard of in the region, while addressing corrosion from the salty marine environment.
Despite these awkward hurdles, the government in Rome seems determined to realize a vision centuries in the making.
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A 2-mile long bridge sounds massive, but do-able. Louisiana has a 20+ mile bridge over water.
Napoleon said: ‘Italy is like a boot. You have to enter it from the top. “
Pensacola here has a 3 mile bridge and there’s a 7 mile bridge in the Keys...........
Spartacus made a bargain with Cilician pirates to transport him and some 2,000 of his men to Sicily, where he intended to incite a slave revolt and gather reinforcements. However, he was betrayed by the pirates, who took payment and then abandoned the rebels.
Seems like this should have been done decades ago.
My big concern if I was engineering it would be Sicily’s motion with respect to the mainland. The motion of the African plate causes it to move significantly every year. I don’t know how you engineer a bridge to handle that.
Our ‘Bay Bridge’ in Maryland is 4 miles, but I don’t think it’s entirely suspension.
“Pensacola here has a 3 mile bridge and there’s a 7 mile bridge in the Keys...........”
The water under the 7 mile bridge is shallow enough to see the bottom. The Strait of Sicily is over 1000 feet deep at parts.
Muztards licking their chops. I am surprised they haven’t attempted something under the English Channel. I guess England is not considered a threat.
Maybe a suspension bridge would be the best choice, with the entire middle a bit flexible.
It’s going to be tricky. I think I read a long time ago that Sicily moves north up to 3 inches per year, which would cause a sideways shift the way the bridge is aligned. Over 40 years, that’s 10 feet, more than a lane width. It will have implications for expansion joints as well as for the cables.
Plus the current rips through the strait.
As you pointed out it is also very deep. Which is why a tunnel will not work.
Plus the two Earth crust plates are moving/separating.
Throw in the Calabria and Sicilian Mafia and I will say Areva Derchi.
Are these waters troubled?
Not in Sicily...................
What am I missing here?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackinac_Bridge
Total length 26,372 ft (8,038 m)
“the (Sicily) bridge is planned to stretch 3,300 meters (10,827 feet) across the strait”
Last time I checked, 26,372 was more than 10,827. But grade school was a long time ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIKELNkdYEw
My husbands great grandparents, 4 of his grandmothers siblings,
many cousins, aunts, uncles, a huge part of the sizeable ex-pat community
died in the Dec. 28, 1908 earthquake.
The earthquake collapsed poorly built stone/concrete stucco homes,
and produced a tsunami with a wall of water that was as high as 30 feet on the mainland and Sicilian side in the Straight of Messina.
It is assumed that his great grandparents and the 4 children were washed out to sea by the tsunami, which followed minutes after the quake. Many people rushed out of their homes when the quake occurred, only to be washed out to sea.
Were it not for the fact my husband’s grandmother(age 14 in 1908) and her sister(age 16) attending boarding school outside of Messina, they would have perished as well.
A Russian Navy ship was the closest to Messina, after the disaster and were the first foreign nation to arrive and begin recovering survivors from the city streets and
those who were trapped in the rubble.
There were 2 major earthquakes in 1693 and 1783 which affected Messina and Calabria.
The Mormon genealogy website, familysearch.org has most all of the ATTI DI MORTE, available for this disaster.
That would be the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.
Here it is.
Doesn't look much like a suspension bridge, does it? You might want to study the Straits of Messina a bit more.
Yes, Paul ... they are, in fact, VERY troubled.
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