Strait of Messina Bridge

The Strait of Messina Bridge is a long-planned suspension bridge across the Strait of Messina, a narrow section of water between the eastern tip of Sicily and the southern tip of mainland Italy. In 2006, under Prime Minister Romano Prodi the project was cancelled. However, on 6 March 2009, as part of a massive new public works programme, Silvio Berlusconi's government announced that construction of the Messina Bridge would indeed go ahead, pledging €1.3 billion as a contribution to the bridge's total cost, estimated at €6.1 billion. If completed, the bridge will be the largest suspension bridge in the world, almost doubling the main span of the Akashi-Kaikyo. The bridge is part of the Line 1 of Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T).

The idea for a bridge spanning the strait has been around since Roman times. A design for a restrained buoyant submarine tube tunnel, that would have been anchored to the seabed,Patent GB1342343, Improvements in or relating to the spanning of bodies of water. was submitted by British engineer Alan Grant in an international competition promoted by the Italian government in 1970. This was awarded one of six equal first prizes.

Geography

The Strait of Messina is a funnel-shaped arm of sea that connects the Ionian Sea in the south to the Tyrrhenian Sea to the north. The width of the strait varies from a maximum of...
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