The Italian government approved a bill on Friday to build a bridge over the Strait of Messinaan initiative that has been discussed without success for decades and which the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, has now adopted as the banner of his administration.
The project dates back to 2012, the year in which construction of the bridge began it would connect the island of Sicily with the Italian peninsula and the company responsible was put into liquidation.
However, the executive’s idea is to take it back with updates to new safety standards and environment.
“The new authorization process will have to guarantee the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, 3.2 kilometreswhich will be the flagship of Italian engineering art,” the minister promised in a statement.
For Salvini the work will be “an engine of growth” for the South, as well as a “major tourist attraction”.
“To be the most beautiful, green and safest bridge in the world, certified by the greatest engineers of the best universities”, underlined the leader of the ultra-nationalist party of the League, defining the date as a “historic day” for the whole country.
The goal is to complete the new executive project for the July 31, 2024 and begin work at the end of that year. The bridge was designed by the Italian architect Marchisiana Saverio Adriano.
In the headquarters of the Ministry of Infrastructure there is a model of the bridge, in front of which Salvini posed with the governors of the regions of both sides, Roberto Occhiuto, from Calabriaand Renato Schifani, of Sicily.
Former Prime Minister and leader of the conservative Forza Italia (FI), Silvio Berlusconihe celebrated the approval and promised that “this time” the works will not stop, recalling that the initiative has been under discussion for 20 years.
In 2021 a report from the Ministry of Infrastructure even ruled out the possibility of entering the strait with underwater tunnels and required seismic studies, as the region is susceptible to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, such as the Stromboli or Etna.
Protesters demonstrated in Italy today carrying banners with the following sentence: “a waste of resources worth 10 billion euros”. The group indicated that this money could be spent 175 intercity trains and 500 regional trains
Even environmental NGOs they refused the bridge due to “very high and unsustainable environmental, social and economic-financial costs”. (HANDLE)
Source: Clarin
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