October 13 2005 at 01:21AM

By Rachel Sanderson

Rome - A centuries-old project to link mainland Italy to the island of Sicily took a major step forward yesterday when an international consortium won a multi-billion-euro contract to build a bridge connecting them.

It will be the longest suspension bridge in the world, with a central span of 3,3km, nearly three times longer than San Francisco's Golden Gate. Its two towers will be 383m high - taller than the Eiffel Tower.

The Italian state-run company in charge announced that a consortium led by Italian firm Impregilo had been awarded the €3,88-billion contract.

This was a 12 percent discount on the €4.4-billion provisional price tag the government had pinned on the most complex engineering job in Italian history.

Building is due to begin next year and is due to finish in 2012, but critics doubt whether cash-strapped Italy will ever complete the mega-project.

Italy's Green Party said the bridge would be an eyesore and act as "a Trojan horse for the Mafia", drawing mobsters from all over Italy.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi championed it during his 2001 election campaign and has argued that the bridge is vital for Italy's impoverished south, which suffers a high unemployment rate.

Opponents say the money would be better spent improving roads, railways, schools and hospitals in the south.

The idea of linking the toe of Italy to Sicily was first mooted in Roman times. At present, travellers have to take a ferry to cross the straights - a trip which can take two hours.

The 60-metre wide bridge would have 10 lanes for cars, trains and emergency vehicles, and will be able to handle 6 000 cars an hour and 200 trains a day.

Supporters say it will substantially increase commercial and tourism traffic through southern Italy and into Sicily, boosting the island's economy.

Environmentalists say the bridge is potentially hazardous, given that it lies in an active earthquake zone.

Messina, the main city on the Sicilian side of the straits, was destroyed by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in 1908 that killed some 87 000 people.

Architects say the structure would be able to withstand an earthquake of more than 7.1.

The entire bridge, including supporting cables, would weigh some 300 000 tons.

Engineers said tests showed the bridge would withstand a bomb attack or the impact of a plane crash into one or more of its supporting cables.

The consortium also includes a Japanese and a Spanish company as well as small Italian firms. - Reuters

Great news, and renderings? :)

wow that will be a massive bridge... anyone have any renders?

So that's where my taxes went...

Earthquakes and suspension bridges do peacefully co-exist. The 7 Richter Scale Kobe earthquake was not a problem for the Akashi Kaikyo Ohashi, presently the worlds longest single-span bridge. Also, while there was considerable damage to the Oakland bridge and McArthur Freeway during the last 'quake there, no damage sustained by the suspension spans of this bridge or the Golden Gate bridge.

Should be very interesting, I've passed through the sea which seperates Sicily and mainland Italy, can imagine how this one would look like, really cool.

Don't know if this is the final design, but here are some drawings:

http://www.tu-berlin.de/presse/doku/stretto_di_messina/2_Virtual%20photos%20of%20the%20bridge/view%20from%20Santa%20Trada%20-Calabria.jpg

http://www.tu-berlin.de/presse/doku/stretto_di_messina/2_Virtual%20photos%20of%20the%20bridge/view%20from%20Punta%20Pezzo%20-Calabria.jpg

http://www.tu-berlin.de/presse/doku/stretto_di_messina/1_Project%20figures/deck%20view.jpg

http://www.tu-berlin.de/presse/doku/stretto_di_messina/1_Project%20figures/towers.jpg

Sorry, they are not that small...

More pics: http://www.tu-berlin.de/presse/doku/stretto_di_messina/

The 60-metre wide bridge would have 10 lanes for cars, trains and emergency vehicles, and will be able to handle 6 000 cars an hour and 200 trains a day.
Would this make it the widest bridge in the world?

I can only see 2x2 lanes + 2 emergencylanes, great brigde though!

AMAZING!!!

Amazing! I hope it gets built without the interfere of the opponents

wow
amazing project
383m pilons :eek:

just a question: is there such a high demand for a bridge of these dimensions for the traffic between sicily and italy, which can justify an investment of this scale?

just a question: is there such a high demand for a bridge of these dimensions for the traffic between sicily and italy, which can justify an investment of this scale?


There isn't..

AWWWWWWWWEsome! great news :)
question: isn't it dangerous for such a big building to be built in such an earthquake zone?

I thought the longest bridge was somewhere in China and it is 30-something km in length.

It's the longest suspension bridge but not the longest bridge in the world full stop, there are several bridges that can match this for size including the Second Severn Crossing completed in 1996 and linking England and Wales across the Severn Estuary

http://www.severnestuary.net/sep/images/severn%20bridge5.jpg

http://img.tfd.com/wiki/8/84/New.severn.bridge.best.750pix.jpg

The proposed Morecambe Bay Bridge will dwarf the Severn Bridge and will be a lot bigger than the Italian Bridge.

Other big Bridges in the UK include -:

The Humber Bridge

Impressive project :eek:

I thought the longest bridge was somewhere in China and it is 30-something km in length.


the thread title is wrong
it's the bridge with the longest span between the pilons/towers

title of the longest bridge is boring
the crown discipline is the span between 2 pilons/towers, which in this case is almost a world wonder.

http://www.strettodimessina.it/img_simula/12-web.jpg http://www.strettodimessina.it/img_simula/02-web.jpg http://www.strettodimessina.it/img_simula/13-web.jpg http://www.strettodimessina.it/img_simula/04-web.jpg http://www.i-dome.com/imax/ponte-stretto-di-messina.jpg http://www.ansa.it/fdgimages02/1094905930_h_in_PONT_20040911.jpg http://www.legambientesicilia.com/public/documenti/_img_20050404_ponte.jpg http://www.monicafrassoni.it/data/frassoni/pontestrettoItalianostra.jpg
Technical Project
• 3.300 metres - length of the central span
• 3.666 metres - the total length
• 60,4 metres - width of the suspended deck
• 382,60 metres - total height of the towers
• 2 pairs of suspension cables
• 5.300 metres long with a diameter of 1,24 metres - dimensions of the cables
• 44.352 wires for each cable
• 65 metres high by 600 wide - the minimum central navigable clearance

Road and rail capacity
• 6 driving lanes, 3 for each direction (1 fast, 1 normal, 1 emergency)
• 2 service lanes
• 2 rail tracks
• 6.000 vehicles/hour and 200 trains/day - the theorical traffic capacity

Records
• 3.300 metres length of the central span - 1991 metres Akashi Bridge (Japan)
• 60,4 metres width of the suspended deck- 41 metres Tsing Ma Bridge (Hong Kong)
• 382,60 metres height of the towers- 297 metres Akashi Bridge (Japan)
• 4 cables - suspension system- 2 Akashi Bridge (Japan)
• 1,24 metres diameter of suspension cables- 1,12 metres Akashi Bridge (Japan)
• 44.352 wires for each steel cable- 36.830 Akashi Bridge (Japan)

Intresting!

Pakistan is also trying to make one of the longest bridges!

From Karachi to Bundle Island

just a question: is there such a high demand for a bridge of these dimensions for the traffic between sicily and italy, which can justify an investment of this scale?

I am wondering the same thing...

Anyways, amazing project!! The pylons are incredible.

stupid. why not a tunnel? because ou can not see it? ....

stupid. why not a tunnel? because ou can not see it? ....
A tunnel in an earthquake zone does not make much sense. If you require any further support for this, check out the Japanese islands. All the long spans are bridges and not tunnels. It might be cheaper to drill a tunnel, but it is easier and substantially cheaper to fix earthquake damage on a well built bridge.

I do not think it is a good idea. The country is a mess, the economy is severely underperforming. They need to fix it by upgrading services. Can you imagine what eur 4 billion could do to the rest of infrastructure? To build this bridge is a waste of money.

i guess people from the space will be able to see the bridge? that would be awesome

This forum is for highrises, not transport.

In the future, please post threads in the correct place.

Nice to see something like this planned however, I hope they try to make the towers look better with some interesting ornamentation.

http://tinypic.com/ejh05d.jpg http://tinypic.com/ejh0s9.jpg
http://tinypic.com/ejh27o.jpg http://tinypic.com/ejh2j4.jpg

http://www.raitre.rai.it/Static/immagine/19/gaia_ponte_messina_01.jpg http://www.pontopoli.it/ponte.jpg http://www.mancosueditore.it/Focus/images/strettob1.jpg

and this HUGE bridge will be built by a spanish company: SACYR :banana: :cucumber: :drunk: :dance:

Sacyr is one of the companies (a lot of companies) involved in the consortium leaded by Impregilo, an Italian company.

yeah, the thread title is wrong. Its the bridge with the longest SPAN in the world. There are MANY much longer bridges, as Rio-Niterói for example, which is 13 km long.

I do not think it is a good idea. The country is a mess, the economy is severely underperforming. They need to fix it by upgrading services. Can you imagine what eur 4 billion could do to the rest of infrastructure? To build this bridge is a waste of money.

You didn't understand anything. The high speed track now arrives till to Naples, but in the future it will arrive to Palermo (Sicily) and it's senseless to build a HST if then at Reggio Calabria you have to brake the train, load the ferry boat, rebuild the train in Messina and send it to Palermo don't you think? The same thing is for trains transporting goods, it's a waste of time and money. Of course others infrastructures as highways and railways must be built...and infact they are planned. Then I wouldn't say the country is a mess, gdp is growing at 0,7% (last year it was at 0,1%) and the manifactural production is growing too, unemployment is at 7,8% (I don't remember such a low rate during the last 20 years). I agree with you when you say we need to upgrading services...that's what we are doing and the bridge is one of the steps :)

stupid. why not a tunnel? because ou can not see it? ....

The water in the Strait of Messina is really, really deep (if you see the renders you will discover pylons are on the land, not in the water) and as another forumer said it is in a earthquake zone, so the only option was the bridge).

Italy's Green Party said the bridge would be an eyesore and act as "a Trojan horse for the Mafia", drawing mobsters from all over Italy.

:laugh:
:hahaha:
:hilarious
:hammer:

This forum is for highrises, not transport.

In the future, please post threads in the correct place.
You're probably right. But the towers are 383 meters tall. That gives it some claim to fame, even for it's height, don't you agree... ;)

I travelled by train from Pisa to Palermo last year. It took 14 hours, 2 hours of them were the the procedure of embark, transfer, disembark (the ferry transfer itself just took 20 minutes). With this bridge you could save nearly 2 hours of travel and when the HST-tracks have reached Palermo, I'm sure for Pisa-Palermo you would need only 9 hours.

^^ 9 hours?! Silly Romans, erm Germans. You could probably cut it down to six, already:

Pisa-Stansted: 2h15m, Stansted-Palermo 3h (both RyanAir).

If you only desire to cut your journey time to 9hrs, you can even go shop in London for an hour or two. And don't tell me trains are cheaper than flights because for most passenger journeys that hasn't been true in Europe for over a decade now.

The support towers of the bridge will get the tallest free-standing towers in the area of the European Union!

The water in the Strait of Messina is really, really deep (if you see the renders you will discover pylons are on the land, not in the water) and as another forumer said it is in a earthquake zone, so the only option was the bridge).How deep is it? And the channel where the fault line is (like Golden Gate Bridge which spans the San Andreas fault)?

When I saw it in the news yesterday, I was curious as to why it had to be a single span (which accounts for the huge propotions).

^^^From the Stretto di Messina bridge web site: http://www.strettodimessina.it/DomandeMenu-e.html

In 1985, it was decided a bridge was the best form of crossing but a detailed analysis was still made of the most significant subsea and floating tunnel options. For subsea tunnels, more favourable geo-morphological conditions are required where there are compact, impermeable strata at a modest depth from the sea bed that allow excavations to be made safely and quickly (as in the case of the English Channel). In the Strait of Messina, the geology of the land and the existence of faults - discontinuous surfaces at depth - make it particularly difficult to use this solution. Impermeable rocks are also found at a depth of 250 m below sea level. Besides very high hydrostatic pressure which can cause tunnel flooding descending to such a depth also involves a disproportionate development of the access ramps. It would be impractical to have to build around 47 km of tunnels to cross a stretch of sea just 3.9 km long, with uncertain costs and construction times (and certainly far higher and longer than the construction of a bridge).

The subsea tunnel concept, based on the Archimedes’ Principle, was presented to the Consortium of Ideas 1969 by the Alan Grant Group. A great deal of attention was paid to feasibility studies in attempting to optimize the benefits and minimize the drawbacks. A tunnel had the advantage of not affecting the landscape and being strictly conditioned (within certain limits) by the location of the crossing. However it also included many unfavourable elements, largely attributable to the uncertainty of the design parameters, uncertainty over the execution technique, the services provided, both in terms of feasibility and length of time, and the risk of exceptional events. The effect on the subsea environment and on currents, the considerable sensitivity to marine actions and vulnerability to hostile actions (such as sabotage and terrorism) should also be taken into account. The costs and periods of execution planned were very high and extremely uncertain because of the total lack of experience in the construction of such a tunnel.

The aerial solution of a suspension bridge is considered the most traditional although the Bridge will have a span far longer than the longest suspension bridge.
The advantages of a bridge project are the structural and managerial experience which covers more than a century and hundreds of constructions throughout the world (the "accumulated life" of the 115 longest suspension bridges amounts to over 4,800 years to date). The design and execution methodologies to be used are therefore tried and tested. The suspension bridge is the least vulnerable to earthquakes of the three options, does not have any effect on the marine environment or on navigation, presents the highest degree of safety and comfort (including psychological comfort) for users, and does not present any particular operating or maintenance problems. With regard to efficiency of transportation, unlike the other solutions, the Bridge offers the possibility of providing a single, vast platform for flexible use and can deal with all foreseeable traffic requirements, even in emergencies. Finally, the Bridge construction involves the least and most predictable time and costs.

The key advantages of this solution are therefore as follows:
• Use of tried and tested technologies;
• Greater safety and efficiency; less sensitivity to exceptional events, including sabotage and terrorism;
• Shorter construction times and lower construction and operating costs than other solutions;
• Simple and safe to maintain;
• No interference with the delicate marine environment of the Strait;
• No negative psychological effect on users;
• Positive effects on the scientific and business world with considerable effects on the image of the country;
• Favourable cost/benefit ratio superior to that of the other solutions.

Before committing to the choice of a single span design, the possibility of constructing a smaller suspension bridge was assessed. The choices were a bridge with two towers in relatively shallow waters, or one with a single central tower in deeper waters (150 m). Many unfavourable elements were found with regard to the safety, construction and maintenance because of the depth, the strong irregular currents in the Strait, the presence of active faults, greater sensitivity to earthquakes and the dangers deriving from interference with maritime traffic in a navigable channel that is already particularly demanding.

The two-span solutions were therefore definitively ruled out based on the above considerations, and taking the following points into consideration:
• The lack of experience in constructing and maintaining bridge structures at similar depths in the sea and in such severe conditions;
• The lack of substantial and decisive advantages in terms of structural response but also in terms of construction costs;
• The severe temporary and permanent impact on the marine environment;
• The impact on the smoothness and safety of navigation in the Strait.

The Supervisory Commissions (Italian State Railways Senior Supervisory Authority, ANAS Commission and National Council for Public Works) considered "the construction of a tower in the sea unreliable" and therefore gave the go-ahead for the development of the proposed single-span suspension bridge.

^^ 9 hours?! Silly Romans, erm Germans. You could probably cut it down to six, already:

Pisa-Stansted: 2h15m, Stansted-Palermo 3h (both RyanAir).

If you only desire to cut your journey time to 9hrs, you can even go shop in London for an hour or two. And don't tell me trains are cheaper than flights because for most passenger journeys that hasn't been true in Europe for over a decade now.

If you have a good flight connection in Stansted, then it's fine. But a direct train connection has also advantages: you enter the train in the city center and leave it in the city center, no transfer to the airport needed. No check-in procedures. No worries that you miss your connecting flight/train etc.

My journey last year was from Hamburg to Palermo and after days of checking out tariffs and fares, the best solution for me was flying from Lübeck to Pisa and then taking the nighttrain to Palermo. I also checked the connection Lübeck-London-Palermo, but it was a) already more expensive than the other solution, b) no flight connection.

Additionally I have to add that flights are in most cases only cheaper then trains if you get the cheapest fares. I'm not speaking of Ryanair in this case, which is an exception.

Thanks Falcon83 for the post.

Just one word, amazing!

wow
amazing project
383m pilons :eek:

just a question: is there such a high demand for a bridge of these dimensions for the traffic between sicily and italy, which can justify an investment of this scale?

The bridge won't be built just to connect Sicily to the paeninsula, but to the whole of Europe. When it is built (altogether with the completion of the High Speed line from Berlin to Palermo), it will bring European freight and passengers closer to each other and also closer to Africa.
I'd like to remind those who have talked about the Italian economic situation that the bridge will be built in "project financing", that is the government won't have to pay for it.

IMPREGILO is the leading italian/European engineering and general contracting group in the construction and environmental sectors.

it's a major international player whose infrastructure projects help drive the economic and social growth of many countries. Today the core activities of the Infrastructures Business Unit are construction of: railways; dams and hydroelectric plants; roads and motorways; railways and subway; specialised underground works, and marine works

main works in progress by Impregilo:
High Capacity Line, Turin-Novara section, Italy
High Capacity Line, Novara-Milan section, Italy
High Capacity Line, Bologna-Florence section, Italy
San Gottardo Railway Tunnel, Bodio and Faido Lots, Switzerland
Caracas - Cuá Railway Line, Venezuela
Puerto Cabello - Cagua Railway Line, Venezuela
Mazar Project, Ecuador
Ponte de Pedra Project, Brazil
Karahnjukar Project, Iceland
Eastern Aqueduct, Dominican Rep.
West Side CSO Project (Portland) U.S.A.
Salerno-Reggio Calabria Motorway (Gioia Tauro-Scilla section) Italy
Salerno-Reggio Calabria Motorway (Scilla-Reggio Calabria section) Italy
Mestre Link Motorway, Italy
Monte Bianco-Aosta Motorway, Courmayeur-Morgex section, Italy
Rosario - Victoria Cable-stayed bridge, Argentina
East - West Urban Motorway at Santiago Chile
Genoa Subway, Italy
Naples Subway, Italy
Athens Subway, Line 3, Greece

It will be surely a fantastic construction.

Interestingly, the pillars of these bridge will be the first "supertall-construction" (construction taller than 1200 feet = 365.76 metres) built in Western-Europe after the construction of the 385 metre tall Belmont TV mast ( http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0014952 ) in 1965!

A further interesting idea would be to install an observation deck on one or both of the pillars. Such idee has already been realized on the New Danube Bridge in Bratislava, Slovakia ( http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0001105 )!

http://en.structurae.de/files/photos/1893/bratislava10.jpg
Pillar of the New Danube Bridge in Bratislava, Slovakia. In the cylindre of the top there is a restaurant accessible by elevator

I do not think it is a good idea. The country is a mess, the economy is severely underperforming. They need to fix it by upgrading services. Can you imagine what eur 4 billion could do to the rest of infrastructure? To build this bridge is a waste of money.

sydney built the harbour bridge as a solution of high unemployment at the time... so italy is adopting a stradegy that has worked for other countries that have faced similar problems in the past... capital works for southern italy such as this is a step in the right direction in my opinion

Holy shit!

The pics don't do justice to the scale of the project. Each of those towers is slightly taller than the ESB.

A tunnel in an earthquake zone does not make much sense. If you require any further support for this, check out the Japanese islands. All the long spans are bridges and not tunnels. It might be cheaper to drill a tunnel, but it is easier and substantially cheaper to fix earthquake damage on a well built bridge.

Seikan Rail Tunnel - Connecting Honshu & Hokkaido, 53.9km long.

I know I know... I get what you're saying, the Seikan wasn't bridge-feasable. But Japan does have tunnels! :)

Once this is completed there should be another bridge built from Pantelleria to Sicily. :)

that bridge is really cool, we need more big projects like this :)

I can't wait to see this built! :eek:

just a question: is there such a high demand for a bridge of these dimensions for the traffic between sicily and italy, which can justify an investment of this scale?There isn't..Having taken the commuter ferry between Reggio and Messina, I can tell you that there is.

This bridge wouldn't simply connect Messina to Reggio, it would be the gate to Sicily, which is an island of 5.2 million people. Actually, the first thing you wonder when you arrive at the Strait of Messina and you see Sicily so close from Calabria is why isn't there already a bridge there.

That's a project I'm looking at with a lot of interest, I can't wait to see it build.

Where does Confederation Bridge in Canada (PEI to mainland) fit into this? It's just under 13km long (sure, it's not suspension)

What an amazing bridge!!!

wow
amazing project
383m pilons :eek:

just a question: is there such a high demand for a bridge of these dimensions for the traffic between sicily and italy, which can justify an investment of this scale?

There are a lot of reasons to build this brige over the Messina Strait:
1. Sicily is the biggest island in the Mediterranean Sea
2. Sicily has about 6 milions of inhabitants (is the second region in Italy most populate)
3. The ferries transport service is not very good and fast (specially during summer period)
4. This is bridge empower our economy

Wasn't work on this bridge meant to start in Q1 2006? If so, is there any sign of it yet?

^^
Not yet... but I think for the end of February or in March they'll start to work at the Bridge (I'm pretty sure 'cause in April there are political elections in Italy :D )

It's pretty important to start to build it before the polls, 'cause in left wing coalition Green Party and Communists do not want the bridge to be built and if they will win (what is likely) probably they'll stop the project.
If they start previously to build it, it will be more difficult to stop the project in case left will win; many people in the coalition would be happy (this is my personal opinion) to have an excuse to go on with the construction, but now they can't say it clearly for political convenience

Great stuff. Hope it gets built. This is marvelous engineering.

This is going to be one sweet bridge!

It is finally going forward.

Italy's government has revived plans to build a controversial bridge linking the island of Sicily to the mainland.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7928949.stm

I'm just glad it has rail. :tongue3: