Italy-Sicily link by bridge

Press, 25 January 1986, Page 19

Italy-Sicily link by bridge

With agreement finally reached on the construction of a link across the English Channel, more pressure is expected to be brought on the Italian Government to hasten the long-proposed joining of Sicily with the Italian mainland. A link across the Straits of Messina has been almost as long in the pipeline as that between France and England. In 1878, a Cabinet Minister told the Italian Parliament: “Under the waves or above the waves, Sicily must be united with the Continent.” About every 10 years since, the project and the debate on whether it should be a bridge or a tunnel has been

revived. The latest plan hinges on the establishment six months ago of a State-owned company involving Italian Railways and motorway organisations. The project now seen as most likely is a 3.3kilometre single-span suspension bridge supported by 380-metre-high towers at each end, that would dwarf any other in the world. The Messina bridge would be 2>/ 2 times as long as San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and more than twice as long as the world’s present largest single span, the Humber Bridge in Britain. Its road would be 70 metres

above the sea, with three lanes for motor traffic in each direction, and two rail tracks. In 1978, it was estimated the bridge would cost between $650 million and $9BO million. Present traffic across the Straits of Messina is carried on five railway and two vehicle ferries operated by the Italian Railways, and six car ferries run by two private companies. More than 10,000 cars and 300 railway carriages have been carried on peak days. Waiting time for motorists of up to five hours is not uncommon. The "Guinness Book of Records” shows the world’s longest bridge span to be the main span

of the Humber Bridge, completed in 1980. The span is 1410 metres long. Towers for the Humber Bridge are 162.5 metres high. The previous longest singlespan suspension bridge was the Verrazano-Narrows in New York at 1298 metres. It was opened in 1960. Before that, the Golden Gate Bridge, at 1280 metres, was the longest. The longest suspension bridge in the world with multi-spans is the Mackinac Straits bridge between Mackinac City and Ignace, in Michigan. It is 2543 metres long, with a main span length of 1158 metres.