Italy plans to build the world’s longest suspension bridge to Sicily
After 10 years of deliberation, the Italian authorities have started talking again about building a bridge that would connect the mainland with the island of Sicily.
Italy is preparing to implement a “millennial plan” to build the world’s longest suspension bridge across the Strait of Messina, which would connect the mainland with the island of Sicily. The bridge is expected to be about 3,300 meters long, making it the longest suspension bridge in the world, IFLScience reports.
It is assumed that the suspension bridge will be built over a thin strip of sea between the “toe” of the Italian boot in Calabria and the Sicilian metropolis of Messina. If this does happen, the bridge span will be about 60% longer than the current record holder, the Canakkale Bridge, which is 2023 meters long. This bridge was built in Turkey in 1915.
However, researchers are quite skeptical of this plan. The fact is that discussions about connecting mainland Italy and Sicily have been going on since Roman times. The authors of the project largely refer to the report of the Roman thinker and army commander Pliny the Elder, who died during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The thinker’s report claims that a temporary bridge across the Strait of Messina had already been built to transport war elephants from Carthage. Unfortunately, it is still unknown whether it was real or just a legend.
The project of building a suspension bridge was first rethought in the 1860s, and then returned to by Italian politicians again and again during the second half of the 20th century. In 2002, then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi renewed the call for the construction of the longest suspension bridge in the world. He even stated that the first stone would be laid in 2004, and the ambitious construction plan would be completed by 2010. Unfortunately, the bridge was never built. In 2009, Berlusconi came up with this idea again, but in 2013 it was abandoned due to budget cuts.
Since then, there has been a lull until the bridge construction plan was officially resumed in March 2023. It is expected that the ambitious project will be completed in just 15 years, with a budget of 12 billion euros. It is not surprising that this time experts were skeptical about the new construction plan.
Environmentalists and some other scientists consider the project to be very risky, as the region is a hotspot of seismic activity and is extremely prone to earthquakes. However, Italian Minister of Infrastructure Matteo Salvini said that despite all the risks and doubts, the longest suspension bridge in the world will be built.
