Italy revives Sicily bridge plan

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

Italy's government has revived plans to build a controversial bridge linking the island of Sicily to the mainland.

The Messina bridge, whose centre span of 3.3km (two miles) would make it the longest in the world, has been a pet project of Italy's Silvio Berlusconi.
...
It is part of a massive 17.8bn-euro (£15.9bn) public works programme to create new jobs and boost the economy.
...
It was strongly criticised for two reasons, says the BBC's David Willey in Rome.

The first was on the grounds of safety. The bridge will span a busy shipping lane and will have to withstand high winds.

Secondly, many feared that huge amounts of taxpayers' money would be siphoned off by the Sicilian and Calabrian mafias, which control most public works projects in the south of Italy.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7928949.stm

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And it's an earthquake area, of course.

[dbackjon]

1. And an easy terrorist target...

[excess_3]

5. no different than any other bridge

earthquakes
terrorism
sea level issues
shipping.

are hardly unique to Italy

[dbackjon]

6. This would be much easier

Easy sea access from the Middle East.

Long span - much harder to guard

[Posteritatis]

8. You're right; Europeans should just never build anything big again

:sarcasm:

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Though it would be 65% longer than any existing bridge

and more than 2 times longer than all but one bridge in the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_suspension_bridges , which may make the wind and earthquake considerations considerable.

[Betsy Ross]

2. Put Montalbano on the job!

(Italian detective books/tv series set near Palermo)

[Blue_Tires]

12. lol...

yeah, he'd straighten shit out if he were around!

[pscot]

3. They better make allowance

for rising sea levels.

[Titonwan]

4. Neat-O!

We can take Marge and the kid over in time to get robbed and have our throats slit before noon! Now THAT'S convenient!
Actually that'd be kinda cool.

[Lost in CT]

7. It seems like a good idea...nt

[Turbineguy]

10. They'll have to build it twice

Once with Mafia supplied concrete and the second time after it collapses. That's how it works.

They built a containership port in Gioia Tauro in the mid 90's. Within 6 months the concrete had desolved and they had to repave with pavers.

[KamaAina]

11. For that distance, I would be thinking tunnel rather than bridge

Japan has a far longer tunnel between Honshu (the main island with Tokyo, Osaka, etc.) and Hokkaido (with Sapporo). It's in earthquake country, too.

edit: and, over on the other side of Europe, there's the Chunnel.