The company set up to build the
Messina Strait Bridge on Thursday asked the environment ministry
for three more months to file required documents on the
controversial project.
Stretto di Messina CEO Pietro Ciucci, citing the "exceptional
significance of the work", said the needed documents would be
filed by mid-September.
Last Friday Ciucci told ANSA that the world's tallest ships will
be able to pass under the future Messina Straits Bridge after
logistics federation Federlogistica voiced doubts about mammoth
cruise liners and other tall ships getting under what
would be the world's longest suspension bridge linking Sicily to
mainland Italy.
Last month the European Parliament approved the updated
guidelines for the development of the Trans-European Transport
Network (Ten-T), which connects over 420 major cities in the EU,
and included in the plan Italy's ambitious project to build the
Messina Strait Bridge.
Work on the bridge will start this summer, Transport and
Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini said last month after
the environment ministry asked the contracting company to
explain 239 parts of the project.
Salvini has pushed strongly to revive a project mooted by
successive past centre-right governments but never actually
started due to environmental, mafia infiltration and seismic
concerns and the significant cost.
The bridge currently has a price tag of some 14.6 billion euro
($16.14 billion), or about one percent of Italian GDP, and is
scheduled to come into use in the late 2030s.
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