Bridge over the Strait of Messina

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Coordinates: 38 ° 14 ′ 57 ″  N , 15 ° 37 ′ 56 ″  E

Ponte sullo Stretto di Messina
Ponte sullo Stretto di Messina
Sectional drawing of the planned bridge
Convicted E 45 , Berlin – Palermo railway axis
Subjugated Strait of Messina
place Cannitello , Ganzirri Calabria , Sicily
construction Suspension bridge
overall length 3.7 km
width 60.4 m
Pillar spacing 3.3 km
Arrow height 382.60 m
Clear height 65 m
Status Planning discarded
location
Bridge over the Strait of Messina (Calabria)
Bridge over the Strait of Messina

A bridge over the Strait of Messina ( Italian: Ponte sullo Stretto di Messina ) was to cross the Strait of Messina and connect Sicily to the Italian mainland on the E 45 and the Berlin-Palermo railway axis. The state-owned company Stretto di Messina SpA was founded in 1981 to build and operate the bridge .

The construction of such a bridge was discussed several times in the 20th century. The most recent preliminary project was from 2003; its execution was stopped in March 2013 [obsolete] after the general contractor had already resigned in November 2012.

Project from 2003

In October 2005, the Eurolink consortium around the northern Italian construction group Impregilo SpA was awarded the contract as general contractor with an order volume of 3.9 billion euros. Construction work was scheduled to begin in 2007. The bridge should complement the ferry service between Messina (Sicily) and the mainland at Villa San Giovanni and Reggio Calabria in Calabria and enable a direct connection to the A3 (Calabria) and A18 or A20 (both Sicily) motorways .

If completed, the bridge would have been the longest and highest suspension bridge in the world with a main span of 3,300 meters, a total length of 3,666 meters and a tower height of 382.60 meters .

On October 11, 2006, the Italian Chamber of Deputies decided to suspend the implementation of the project. Transport Minister Alessandro Bianchi and Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio , who had been in office under Prime Minister Romano Prodi from May 17, 2006, criticized the project as nonsensical and environmentally harmful. The size and cost of the bridge are inadequate because of Sicily's weak infrastructure. It is more effective and cheaper to first improve the island's infrastructure and accelerate the modernization and expansion of the traffic routes in southern Italy. The bridge construction would destroy areas worthy of protection on both sides of the strait. In addition, there is a risk that organized crime will undermine the project.

The controversial plans have been pushed forward again since Silvio Berlusconi's re-election in April 2008. The official start of construction was December 23, 2009, completion was planned for 2016. According to the magazine L'Espresso, the cost of the project was estimated at around 7.9 billion euros.

The elaborated project was approved by the Board of Directors of Stretto di Messina SpA on July 29, 2011 and the start of construction was announced for mid-2012. However, the approval of the Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning ( Comitato Interministeriale per la Programmazione Economica , abbreviated CIPE) , which was expected for February 2012, was still missing . The official cost forecast has been raised to 8.5 billion euros. Since Berlusconi's resignation on November 9, 2011, it was unclear whether the bridge would ever be built. In December 2012, Parliament passed a law that required an additional contract between the general contractor and the operator, which should have been signed by March 1, 2013 at the latest. In addition, the project documents should have been submitted to CIPE for review within 60 days of being signed.

Under the Mario Monti government , provisions of 300 million euros were set up for renegotiations after the general contractor Eurolink withdrew from the contract for work. Since the supplementary contract was not signed on March 1st, 2013, the contract between Eurolink and Stretto di Messina SpA became invalid; the liquidation of the operating company was initiated.

Noteworthy

  • Considerable geological imponderables would have to be considered when building the bridge. The continental drift between the island of Sicily and the mainland leads to seismic activity in the strait. An earthquake followed by a tsunami in 1908 completely destroyed the cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria .
  • The risk of earthquakes excludes supporting elements on the sea floor, which is why the bridge was designed with a record span of over three kilometers.
  • In order to continue to allow shipping traffic on the busy Messina Strait, the bridge should be 65 meters above sea level at its highest point. Large cruise and container ships could also pass under the bridge.
  • The superstructure was to consist of three beams: one in the middle for the railroad, the two on the outside for road traffic. Clearance should be left between the beams so that the bridge would be less prone to vibrations caused by wind.
  • Before and after the bridge, the lanes of the two directions of travel should be crossed for road traffic, that is, traffic traveling to the west should be routed south of the railway line and traffic traveling eastwards to the north of the railway line. Thus, heavy trucks should run closer to the center of the bridge and the weight distribution should be more advantageous for the bridge.

literature

  • Archivio storico siciliano anno XXXIV f.1,2 Lo stretto di Messina.
  • Fabio Spadi: The Bridge on the Strait of Messina: “Lowering” the Right of Innocent Passage? In: International and Comparative Law Quarterly . vol. 50, 2001 (English, online ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ponte sullo Stretto, "Era la più innovativa opera d'ingegneria al mondo". www.casaeclima.com , March 25, 2013, accessed March 31, 2013 (Italian).
  2. ^ Karl Hoffmann: The great bridge building. In: Deutschlandfunk , December 23, 2009.
  3. ↑ Start of construction for Berlusconi's lifelong dream. In: Der Standard , October 14, 2009.
  4. ↑ Bridge over the Strait of Messina is getting more and more expensive. In: VerkehrsRundschau , May 17, 2011.
  5. ^ Ponte sullo Stretto di Messina: CdA approva progetto definitivo. In: le Strade dell'Informazione , July 29, 2011 (Italian).
  6. ^ B. Nebel: The bridge over the Strait of Messina. Retrieved March 31, 2013 .
  7. ↑ Decreto Crescita 2.0: il testo coordinato in Gazzetta Ufficiale. Retrieved March 31, 2013 (Italian).