Sicily and mainland Italy could be linked by the world’s longest suspension bridge in 2031

Italy has long toyed with the idea of building a bridge between the island of Sicily with the mainland.

The hugely ambitious engineering project was in preliminary stages for decades before being shelved in 2013.

In 2022, Italy’s newly elected right-wing government announced it wanted to revive the plans for what will be the world's longest suspension bridge.

It's hoped that the new bridge across the Messina Strait will also combat the influence of Italy's infamous mafia.

"The mafia thrives where there is desperation, where young people have no future and no work", said Italy’s deputy prime minister and transport minister Matteo Salvini said at a conference last week.

“The bridge will bring work, wealth, beauty, will save tons of CO2 in the air, so it will be one of the greenest bridges in the world".

Estimates suggest that the construction could create over 100,000 jobs.

Prime minister Giorgia Meloni said she would ask the EU to help fund the multi-billion euro proposal.

Earlier this month, the bridge's construction company Società Stretto di Messina and the Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency of the European Commission (CINEA9 signed a new funding proposal.

The Grant Agreement will see the EU cover 50 per cent of the executive design costs of the rail infrastructure amounting to around €25 million. The total cost is estimated to be €13.5 billion.

Can you drive from Sicily to mainland Italy?

Currently, no you can not drive from mainland Italy to the island of Sicily. Instead you have to go by plane, boat or a train that boards a ferry.

However, as far back as Roman times, the idea of a bridge to connect the two land masses was debated.

In fact, according to some historians, the ancient Romans did actually build one made of barrels and boats.

Dictator Benito Mussolini revived the dream of linking Sicily with the mainland, but it wasn’t until the government of Silvio Berlusconi in the early 2000s that the scheme gained funding from Brussels.

In 2009, a contract for the construction was awarded to the Messina Strait Company.

The proposed rail and road connection was to link the Sicilian city of Messina with the region of Calabria on the mainland.

But plans were scrapped in 2013 after former premier Mario Monti closed the construction company in a series of austerity cuts.

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Why is there no bridge from mainland Italy to Sicily?

The plans for a suspension bridge between Sicily and the mainland have not been unanimously supported.

Advocates claim the connection will help boost the island’s stagnating economy and lessen the gap between the country’s wealthy north and poorer south.

Supporters also say that it will allow cargo ships arriving down the Suez Canal to transfer their goods onto trains in Sicily.

This would then enable them to be transported quickly up to the north of the country, saving money on lengthy sea voyages.

The rail and road connection would also ease the pressure on the overcrowded ferry services that shuttle cars, lorries and trains over the Strait of Messina.

But critics maintain that the gigantic bridge would be a waste of public funds and a risky undertaking in an active seismic zone.

Environmentalists also warn of the risk to local ecosystems and the aesthetic damage to the landscape.

When will the Strait of Messina bridge be built and how long will it be?

In her first budget as PM in 2022, Meloni reinstated the company that would oversee the construction of the Strait of Messina suspension bridge.

"This is the government and legislature that have the ambition to lay the first stone and start building this blessed project," said Matteo Salvini, Italy’s infrastructure minister and leader of the League coalition party.

The proposed road and rail connection will be 3.2 kilometres in length, which would make it the world's longest suspension bridge ahead of Turkey’s Çanakkale Bridge, with a length of 2,023 metres.

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The estimated total cost of the structure is €4.6 billion and construction sites are set to open by the end of this year.

“Starting work on the construction of the Strait Bridge is one of my goals,” Salvini told Italian broadcaster RAI last month.

“The transshipment of ferries, in addition to pollution and time wasting, costs people more in a year than it would cost to build the bridge.”