ITALY: The final design for a long-proposed rail and road bridge to link Sicily with the mainland has been approved by the board of project company Stretto di Messina.
The company’s work was suspended for 10 years until it was reconstituted by the government in March 2023. The Eurolink consortium of companies led by the Webuild Group which won a tender in 2005 has since reworked designs presented in 2011.
The project involves the construction of what would be the longest single-span bridge in the world. The central suspended span would be 3 300 m long, with two side spans of 183 m. The towers would be 399 m high, and the four suspension cables would have a diameter of 1·26 m. The deck would be 60·4 m wide, with three road lanes in each direction, two service lanes and a double track railway.
The navigable width would be 600 m, with vertical clearance of 65 m.
There would be 20·2 km of new railway linking Villa San Giovanni station on the mainland and a new Messina station in Sicily, with three underground stations at Papardo, Annunziata and Europa.
The journey time would be 15 min, compared to around 120 min for passenger services via the current train ferries and at least 180 min for freight.
It is envisaged that construction could start this summer for opening in 2032.
‘It is confirmed as an extraordinary project, technically cutting-edge’, said Stretto di Messina CEO Pietro Ciucci when the board approved the designs on February 15.
