The Strait of Messina Bridge

The first international idea contest regarding the Bridge's building was called for by the Italian Public Works Minister in 1969. The work in final solution was identified in 1992. In 2003, the preliminary project was approved and in 2004, a European tender was called for the detailed design and construction, which was later assigned in 2005. And 2006, the Società Stretto di Messina company awarded the detailed design and construction contract of the Bridge to the project company Eurolink S.C.p.A, which won the international tender and whose leading company and majority stakeholder is the Webuild Group. On December 20, 2010, Eurolink S.C.p.A. delivered the detailed design after specific studies and analyses were concluded on the territory. On July 29, 2011, the Stretto di Messina company approved the detailed design. Works were stopped by Italian Law-Decree October 18, 2012, no. 179. Italian Law-Decree March 31, 2023, no. 35 (conversion law May 26, 2023, no. 58) established the restart of all activities aimed at building the Strait of Messina Bridge Project.

The project involves the construction of the world's longest suspended bridge, measuring in overall length 3,666 metres, with a suspended span of 3,300 metres. 

The deck's overall width measures 60.4 metres and the two towers on the ground will reach 399 metres in height. 

The suspension bridge will be made of twin cables, each measuring 1.26 metres and made of 44,323 steel wires

The Bridge will connect Sicily to Calabria where the two shores are closer, with a modern, reliable structure that will act of the link to create an integrated infrastructural system, serving the territory and citizens.

The deck will accommodate two roadways with 3 traffic lanes in each direction (two driving lanes plus the shoulder) and a double-track railway line. The Bridge will have a maximum daily capacity up to 200 trains and 6,000 vehicles, and will be open 365 days, 24/7. 

The project's concept and main features, which ensure, today just as in 2011, a level of technical requirements way more demanding compared to the standard  generally applicable to “normal” infrastructures, has been kept unchanged in 2024 Report updating the 2011 Detailed Design

The Report describes several updates aimed to align the project with the in-force regulations (safety, health, environmental) and state-of-art technologies. Innovative solutions adopted in recent major suspension bridge projects . such as the Osman Ghazi bridge or the Çanakkale Bridge on the Dardanelles Strait in Turkey, the world's longest suspended bridge that features the same type of aerodynamically stable deck, the "Messina Type Deck", were also included

The studies carried out by Eurolink S.C.p.A. with regard to environmental protection greatly exceed current normative requirements, confirming what was already validated by the previous Environmental Impact Assessment procedures, both on the Preliminary Project and in the Final one, also in light of the novelties regarding the environmental, territorial and/or normative reference framework.

In particular, the updated detailed design includes a set of environmental compensation and mitigation measures aimed at improving the conditions of the environment affected by  the works. River protection works are amongst those foreseen, like reforestation plans and rebuilding natural habitats in greater proportion compared to what was suggested by Italian ministerial guidelines.

The Scientific* Committee, just like in 2011, expressed its favourable opinion subordinate to the fulfilment of design recommendations. 

Most recommendations will be included out, as requested, in the Construction design. Some of these recommendations, have in any case been already implemented in the integrative documents during the VIA procedure, specifically with regard to environmental matters. 

It is a common understanding among all involved parties that the implementation of the recommendations by the Scientific Committee is perfectly compatible with the development of the Construction design and does not require substantial changes to the Detailed Design.

* The Scientific Committee of Società Stretto di Messina is an independent body with 9 experts appointed by the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport with the Region of Calabria and the Region of Sicily.

The Environmental Impact Assessment Technical Commission (Commissione Tecnica di Valutazione dell'Impatto Ambientale) gave a positive opinion regarding the environmental compatibility of the final project, as integrated with the Integrative Report (Relazione Integrativa) pursuant to Law-Decree 35/2023 on the restarting of procedures for the Bridge, in compliance with the environmental conditions that have been prescribed.

The Commission completed its activities, sending on November 13, 2024, its opinion regarding the stable connection between Calabria and Sicily that includes the Bridge and the road and rail connections on land. 

The Commission, despite expressing a unanimous favourable opinion towards the Bridge project, as for all projects as complex as this one, also requested the implementation of 62 prescriptions to be largely carried out during the execution phase of the project. These prescriptions essentially concern studies, insights and details, or environmental monitoring.

Suspended bridges are the most seismic reliable structures since they are not sensitive to earthquakes. As a fact, a great number of this kind structure is built in areas affected by a greater seismic hazard compared to the Strait of Messina, such as California, Turkey or Japan.

The Strait of Messina Bridge Project adopt PGA (peak ground acceleration) values greater than those foreseen by the applicable Italian building code, for earthquakes with the same probability of occurrence.

The updated set of studies prepared by Eurolink for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure included the update of the geological report and confirmed that the two areas chosen for building the piers and the anchoring blocks of the cables, are stable and safe even from a geo-seismic-tectonic perspective.

The study has been carried out by the expert of the Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra of Rome's Sapienza University in collaboration with Istituto di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) researchers. 

The Cannitello fault, as confirmed in the report of Rome's La Sapienza University and INGV, cannot be defined neither "Active" nor "Capable", in other words it does not reach the surface and cannot therefore interact with the structures built above it. Moreover, the fault does not intersect the foundation shafts of the pier on the Calabria side.

* Note: by active and capable fault we mean a fault that has activated itself at least once in the last 40,000 years (active fault); while a capable fault is one that can reach the topographical surface, producing a fracture/dislocation in the terrain.

Building bridges in areas affected by significant seismicity is common. There are in fact many suspended bridges that resisted major earthquakes without being damaged. Notable examples includethe Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan, near the Kobe seismic epicentre of 1997 and the Osman Ghazi Bridge in Turkey on Izmit bay, which was built in 2016 at just a few kilometres from the Kocaeli earthquake. The world's currently longest bridge, the Çanakkale Bridge, in Turkey, that crosses the Dardanelles Strait with a 2023-metre-long central deck, is located in an area characterised by significant seismic hazard.

These examples demonstrate that it is possible to build safe and lasting structures even in highly seismic areas and complex geological contexts.

The Bridge is designed to resist wind forces with magnitude that have never been registered in the Mediterranean Sea. In particular, the project requires the Bridge to be aero-elastically stable for winds speeds at deck level equal to 270 km/h (75 m/s), i.e. to the maximum design wind speed (216 km/h, 60 m/s) - multiplied for a security factor of 1.25. 

The tests carried out in some of the most important wind tunnels in the world (NRCC in Canada, BMS in England, FORCE in Denmark, and Milan's Polytechnic) demonstrated that the bridge, due to the particular deck structure - the Messina Type Deck - is stable up to a wind speed of 292 km/h.

Please note that the maximum wind speed (gust speed) registered during twenty years of monitoring in the Strait of Messina have never exceeded the speed of 144 km/h. 

The clearance above the sea level of the deck of the Strait of Messina Bridge is 72 metres at the edge of a 600m wide navigation channel. Such clearance is lowered down to 70 metres during ordinary traffic conditions (i.e. with the full load of road lanes and two passenger trains passing simultaneously).  

These parameters are in line or greater than those of existing bridges on the large international navigation routes.

The team of designers currently at work includes the world's maximum experts in the suspended bridge field, and it is practically the same as the team that followed the 2011 Detailed Design. 

COWI, a famous Danish engineering firm that designed some of the most important suspended bridges in the last two decades, is the suspension bridge main designer. 

The contract to design and build the Messina Bridge, was assigned at the end of a long tender process that took place internationally among the world's most competent companies in the sector.

The amount concerning the construction of the Bridge itself amounts to approximately 40% of the total amount of works that are included in the total investment amount stated in the 2025 financial law amounting to approximately 13.5 billion euros. The project also includes important connecting works on the Sicilian and Calabria sides that are functional to the Bridge (among which the three underground stations of Messina and the business center in Calabria) and Mitigation and Environmental Compensatory Works.

In particular, on the Sicilian side, three underground railway stations will also be built (Papardo, Annunziata, Europa) that, connecting to Villa S. Giovanni, Reggio Calabria and Messina will create the interregional urban mobility system of the area surrounding the Strait. In summary, a metropolitan mobility area serving over 400,000 citizens of the Strait of Messina Area.

The Business Centre will be located in Calabria, in Piale, in the Municipality of Villa San Giovanni. It will serve as a multi-functional complex that will host activities connected to managing the Bridge project and services like shops, restaurants and meeting centres.

The Messina Bridge is a strategic infrastructure that is part of a larger infrastructural development plan that Italy is delivering in the South of the country, both in Sicily, and on the continental side. The work for the Bridge itself is worth approximately €4.5 billion on a total amount of approximately €120 billion of railway investments decided to connect the North to the South of Italy. 

The European Union included the Strait of Messina Bridge Project in the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), a set of integrated transport infrastructures foreseen to support the single European market and ensure free circulation, where Webuild just in Italy is building approximately 500 kilometres.

According to the most recent industrial plan of the FS Group of 2024, by the end of 2034 over 50 billion euros will be invested for improving the service quality of the railway network managed by RFI, with further 60 billion euros destined to transforming the actual network. ANAS will invest 40 billion euros for roads and motorways, of which 25 billion will be used for new works and 15 billion for improving the service quality.

The construction phase will be started following the approval of CIPESS (Comitato interministeriale per la programmazione economica e lo sviluppo sostenibile - Inter-Ministerial Committee for economic planning and sustainable development) of the Detailed Design and of the updating Report, and the consequent re-activation of the Contract with Eurolink Contract. 

Concomitantly to the first stage of the Construction design, being a common practice, preliminary activities will be carried out to building the work: i.e. local roads, utilities diversions, explosive residues detection, archaeological investigations, geo-gnostic and geo-technical surveys, and the preparation of construction sites.

Legality is core and is one of the cardinal principles that guides the Eurolink S.C.p.A. project company and its majority shareholder, Webuild, in bringing the business model forward. 

A set of initiatives aimed at the maximum collaboration with institutions and the police force, to ensure information synergy as a means to, within one's activity perimeter, keeping legality monitoring always active. 

We expect that 4,300 workers will be averagely hired in the construction site every year. This number will reach 7,000 workers during the peak production period. 

For the entire construction site duration (7 years), a direct occupational impact of approximately 30,000 WUY (Work Units/Year), with the addition of the indirect occupational rate brought by everything surrounding the project, which is estimated to be equal to 90,000 Work Units/Year, for a total of 120,000 Work Units/Year produced by the Bridge.