«Practicing hagiography and erasing geography» could be said about the projects and actions of the current majority political forces in Italy and Sicily. The bridge over the Strait of Messina was the symbolic work of the Berlusconi government. Now it is for the Vice President of the Council and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini. It took us environmentalists and civic committees ten years, from 2003 to 2013, to sweep it away from the political scene. The Monti government pulled the plug. In 2023 they exhumed the body of the so-called definitive project developed in 2011-2012 by the General Contractor Eurolink – headed by Webuild. They put none other than Stretto di Messina SpA back on its feet, entrusting it to Pietro Ciucci, former CEO of Stretto di Messina SpA from 2002 to 2012, and now again CEO of the “new” Stretto di Messina SpA.
The bridge project over the Strait is the wrong, useless and harmful response to the problems of the South of the country. A incomplete and incomplete project; a project that has already “burned” an enormous amount of resources; a project that does not have the consent of the territory and local authorities.
The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Salvini never misses an opportunity to emphasize the usefulness of the bridge over the Strait, presenting it as «a green, safe, modern work, a development accelerator for the entire South, fundamental for improving its transport network ».
«In fact it would be a gigantic work with a devastating environmental impact. The Bridge will leave entire agglomerations that arise in the coastal area perpetually in the shadow: villages and towns accustomed to solar exposure 365 days a year will be completely darkened, the lakes of Ganzirri and Torre Faro risk extinction, the city will paralyzed for many years by rows of trucks loaded with excavation material: not even an alternative route was established. The construction sites will invade the whole city” – warns us Renato Accorinti, former mayor of Messina – the largest investment of the 2024 Budget Law is the bridge over the Strait of Messina with 11.6 billion euros already committed from this year to 2032. The Meloni government doesn’t even know how to do the math because in the Def 2023, the estimated cost of the “magna opera” is 14.6 billion euros, including the cost of the railways but not the road ones. Furthermore, from next year the new European Stability Pact will come into force which will impose a cut of 15 billion a year for 7 years on our financial institutions, leaving very little space for investments even much more important than the bridge.
In short: they want to build a single span bridge 3.3 km long, with a double railway and road deck, supported by two 400 meter high towers (one hundred meters more than the Eiffel Tower) in one of the areas at greatest seismic risk in the country and where the winds are among the most turbulent. All this, obviously, taking away fundamental economic and financial resources from the real needs of the territory.
The ambiguities and contradictions, the critical issues of the bridge project are underlined by the hundreds of substantial observations formulated by the Ministry of the Environment, the Technical Commission of the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Culture, the professional associations, associations and citizen committees. And to this is added an expropriation plan that would lead to the demolition of hundreds of homes and public spaces.
The Strait of Messina is one of the most beautiful areas from a landscape point of view and among the richest in biodiversity in our country. First of all, the importance of the geographical location of the Strait as an eco-cultural, landscape and naturalistic system must be highlighted, due to currents, winds, geomorphological characteristics, faunal presences, botanical and naturalistic riches of an anthropized territory since the Paleolithic. A territory, a place that has all the characteristics to be recognized by UNESCO, worthy of being included in the Word Heritage List, for exceptional universal value as a natural and cultural heritage. «We must have the strength to say that, like the Greek Theater of Taormina, like the Colosseum, like Petra, there is a global asset that must be protected from concrete flows: the Strait of Messina. We must be stronger than those who want to destroy it, make it clear that it is a sacred place of extraordinary beauty that must be protected, we must be the protectors of creation. Let’s concentrate our forces to carry out the most important work in Italy: the securing of the territory, which collapses with every storm” – Renato Acorinti still maintains with indomitable passion.
Within a few kilometers there is a naturalistic treasure chest of the entire Mediterranean, in one of the most significant and expressive contexts of the mythological cultures of the classical world. I remember the interview with the historian Rosario Villari in the periodical “Italia Nostra” n. 413 of 2005, in which he highlighted the extraordinary historical and archaeological peculiarities of the place, both as regards the Calabrian area and the Sicilian area.
The Strait area is the focal point of a very important natural system today made up of natural reserves and nature parks, very rich in sites of the Natura 2000 network: the Nebrodi, Aspromonte, Etna and the Aeolian Islands, UNESCO heritage sites, the Beautiful, the lagoons of Marinello, the humid environments of the coast with the salt marshes of Faro and Ganzirri, the coastal area of Capo Peloro. Furthermore, the hills overlooking the two banks of the Strait are the resting places for migratory birdlife. These aspects recall the art. 9 of the Constitution which states: «The Republic protects the landscape and the historical and artistic heritage of the Nation. It protects the environment, biodiversity and ecosystems, also in the interests of future generations.” Just as the Council Decree 8410/2009 which establishes the Regional Charter of Places of Identity and Memory cannot be ignored. Therefore, the areas affected by the work are subject to protection 3 by the Area 9 Landscape Plan; areas that are declared “invariant” to the landscape in the Plan Adoption Rules.
Regarding the usefulness of the work in terms of mobility, all the studies and the most accredited assessments believe that maritime traffic between Sicily and the ports of the North cannot be diverted onto the bridge, given the indisputable convenience of sea transport. Passenger traffic also responds to the same principle, not being competitive with long-distance air connections between Sicily and Northern Italy or Europe. There is also still a need to remember that the very poor road and railway infrastructures do not currently allow normal travel between the various cities of the island.
The construction costs of the bridge are enormously higher than comparable works (the Sultan Selim Bridge over the Bosphorus, with a main span of 1.41 km and a total length of 2.2 km, cost €2.3 billion; the Akashi Kaikyō, with a central span of over 1.9 km cost €3.38 billion). The area of influence of the bridge has a relatively modest economic significance and the volume of tolls would not be able to repay the costs, which would instead be borne by the State (unlike, for example, the Channel Tunnel, which is entirely borne by the traffic).
In light of these considerations and the many critical indicators detected during the checks, the Italia Nostra association therefore intends to convene, shortly, an international meeting of technicians and scholars, to contribute to a further deepening of knowledge relating to the “bridge issue ”.
Italia Nostra is among the organizers of the conference “The bridge over the Strait of Messina: Comparing knowledge. Territory, infrastructure, environment, reliability”: two days of debate, not only academic, which will be held on Saturday 18 May 2024, from 9.00 to 18.30 and Sunday 19 from 9.00 to 13.30, in Room C3 of the Ciminiere di Catania.
The national association Italia Nostra, the regional council and the Sicilian sections of Italia Nostra, join the “NO BRIDGE” demonstration which will take place on Saturday 18 May 2024, in Villa San Giovanni – Reggio Calabria.
Prof. Leandro Janni, president of the regional council of Italia Nostra Sicilia
