Sicily: Rome gives green light to construction of the world's longest suspension bridge

A ministerial committee gave the final green light on Wednesday, August 6, to a €13.5 billion project to build the world's longest suspension bridge, linking the island of Sicily to the mainland, a spokesperson announced.

"It will be the longest suspension bridge in the world. Infrastructure of this kind represents an accelerator for development," Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini was quoted as saying during the meeting by his spokesman. The green light for the construction of the state-funded bridge spanning the Strait of Messina marks a "historic page" after decades of planning.

With two railway tracks in the center and three traffic lanes on each side, the bridge is designed with two pairs of cables stretched between two 400-meter-high towers, with a suspended span of 3,300 meters, a world record.

Expected to be completed by 2032, the government claims it is an engineering feat, capable of withstanding strong winds and earthquakes in a region located at the junction of two tectonic plates.

The government hopes it will bring economic growth and jobs to two poor Italian regions , Sicily and Calabria, with Matteo Salvini promising the project will create tens of thousands of jobs.

However, the plan has sparked local protests over its environmental impact and its cost, with critics arguing that the money could be better spent elsewhere. Some also believe it will never see the light of day, citing Italy's long history of public works being announced, funded, and never completed. The bridge itself has suffered several false starts, with the first plans having been drawn up over 50 years ago.

Eurolink, a consortium led by the Italian group Webuild, won the tender in 2006, but it was canceled following the eurozone debt crisis. However, the consortium remains the contractor for the revived project.

This time, Rome has an additional incentive to move forward: it has classified the cost of the bridge as a defense expense. Debt-ridden Italy has agreed, along with other NATO allies, to massively increase its defense spending to 5 percent of GDP, at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump .

Of this amount, 1.5% can be spent on "defense-related" areas, such as cybersecurity and infrastructure, and Rome hopes that the Messina bridge will be eligible, especially since Sicily is home to a NATO base.