ROME: Italy’s government is to give final approval Wednesday to a 13.5-billion-euro ($15.6-billion) project to build the world’s longest suspension bridge, connecting the island of Sicily to the mainland.
Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini said a ministerial committee will back the state-funded bridge over the Strait of Messina, marking a “page in history” following decades of planning.
The bridge has been designed with two railway lines in the middle and three lanes of traffic on either side, with a suspended span of 3.3 kilometers (2.05 miles) — a world record — stretching between two 400-meter (1,300 feet) high towers.
Due for completion by 2032, the government says the bridge is at the cutting edge of engineering, able to withstand high winds and earthquakes in a region that lies across two tectonic plates.
Ministers hope it will bring economic growth and jobs to two impoverished Italian regions — Sicily and Calabria on the mainland — with Salvini promising the project will create tens of thousands of jobs.
Yet it has sparked local protests, over the environmental impact and the cost that critics say could be better spent elsewhere.
Some critics believe it will never materialize, pointing to a long history of public works announced, financed and never completed in Italy.
The bridge has had several false starts, with the first plans drawn up more than 50 years ago.
Eurolink, a consortium led by Italian group Webuild, won the tender in 2006 only to see it canceled after the eurozone debt crisis. The consortium remains the contractor on the revived project.
This time, Rome has an added incentive to press ahead — by classifying the cost of the bridge as defense spending.
Debt-laden Italy has agreed along with other NATO allies to massively increase its defense expenditure to five percent of GDP, at the demand of US President Donald Trump.
Of this, 1.5 percent can be spent on “defense-related” areas such as cybersecurity and infrastructure. Rome is hoping the Messina bridge will qualify, particularly as Sicily hosts a NATO base.