The Italian Cabinet of Ministers has adopted a decree that foresees a return to the long-conceived project of building a 3.2 kilometer long bridge between the island of Sicily and the mainland.
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The decree establishes “urgent conditions for the construction of a firm connection between Sicily and Calabria”, according to a government press release.
The purpose of the decree is to quickly return to the plan to build a bridge that will connect the city of Messina in Sicily with the Calabria region in the south of the Apennine Peninsula.
Parliament has two months to turn this decree into law. According to the plan, the bridge construction project must be approved by July 31, 2024, and construction must begin by the end of 2024, local media reported.
“After 50 years of talk, this cabinet is approving a bridge connecting Sicily to the rest of Italy and Europe,” Transport Minister Mateo Salvini said, calling it a “historic day”.
The ancient Romans also dreamed of building a bridge over the Strait of Messina. More than 2,000 years ago, they connected rafts and barrels to build such a bridge, but their plans were ruined by a storm.
Various Italian governments had been debating the “Bridge over the Strait” (“Il Ponte sullo stretto”) project for decades. At the beginning of this century, the then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government supported the construction of the bridge, planning to start it in 2006 and finish it by 2012.