Bridge over the Strait of Messina, Salvini: “Decree stamped, cost estimated at 10 billion”

Green light to the Bridge decree on the strait, the offices have completed the latest investigations, the MIT announces, “confirming the text that had been approved in the Council of Ministers on March 16 with the formula” subject to agreements “”. The cost for the construction of the bridge and all the railway and road access works on both banks, reports the Ministry, is now estimated at 10 billion. With the completion of the high-speed rail system in the two regions and the commissioning of the bridge, it is estimated that the journey times from Rome to Palermo will halve, today equal to 12 hours, of which an hour and a half only for the ferrying of the wagons . The bridge over the Strait, recalls the ministry, represents a strategic work for the completion of the trans-European transport networks and is part of the route of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean multimodal corridor.

The technical project
The stable crossing over the strait was designed according to the suspension bridge scheme. The technical project currently available, specifies the Mit, consists of about 8,000 drawings and provides for a length of the central span between 3,200 and 3,300 meters, compared to a total length of 3,666 meters including the side spans, 60.4 meters width of the deck , 399 meters in height of the towers, 2 pairs of cables for the suspension system, 5,320 meters in total length of the cables, 1.26 meters in diameter of the suspension cables, 44,323 steel wires for each suspension cable, 65 meters height of central navigable channel for the transit of large ships, with a volume of anchor blocks equal to 533,000 cubic metres. The work consists of 6 road lanes, 3 in each direction (2 + 1 emergency) and 2 railway tracks, for an infrastructure capacity of 6,000 vehicles/hour and 200 trains/day. The project also envisages the use of the railway infrastructure to create a local public transport service between the two cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria. The bridge was designed with an earthquake resistance of 7.1 on the Richter scale, with a “third generation” aerodynamic deck stable up to wind speeds of 270 km/h.

The companies involved
With the decree, the Stretto di Messina company, in liquidation, is transformed into an in-house company. The corporate structure provides for the participation of Rfi, Anas, the Regions of Sicily and Calabria and for a share of no less than 51% of Mef and Mit. The latter is assigned functions of direction, control and technical and operational supervision of the company in relation to the activities covered by the concession, a circumstance which will guarantee the exercise of a decisive direction activity on the strategic objectives and decisions of the company. The establishment of a Scientific Committee for technical consultancy, supervision and direction of the technical design activities is envisaged. The final design of the bridge will have to be integrated and updated according to the prescriptions and regulations in force. The contracts already stipulated are revived, the ministry points out, subject to the cancellation of the dispute.