Thursday, April 10, 2008

The Sicilian Straits Bridge, 142 years Old, but Not Built Yet.

The ANNOTICO Report

The Straits of Messina have been making waves ever since Ulysses narrowly made it between the shores of Scylla on the mainland side and Charybdis on the Sicilian side. According to the Ancient Greek historian Strabo, a Roman consul returning from the Punic wars with Carthage lashed together boats across the straits in order to transport 104 elephants he had captured after battle with the vanquished Hannibal. They were swept away by the currents.

Shortly after the birth of modern Italy in 1865, the government's newly created Ministry of Public Works, as one of its first acts, commissioned an engineer to draw up plans to build a two-mile span linking the island of Sicily to the mainland. The bridge, which was to connect the Sicilian city of Messina to the Calabria region on the toe of Italy's boot, was to be the physical symbol of the country's unity. It has been in the planning ever since.

After World War II, the bridge took on new significance: It was to be a technical marvel that would demonstrate Italy's progress to the world. "For us, it was like going to the moon," says Giuseppe Campione, a former governor of Sicily.

In 1955, the government formed a public-private company, the Messina Bridge Group, to study how Sicily could be connected with the mainland. The bridge would also drag Italy's backward south into the modern age.

During the terms of Silvio Berlusconi, the former two-time center-right prime minister, made the Bridge a priority.

 

However much I would think that the Bridge would be a boon and a bond, Italy is littered with half-finished projects. Work is still being done on the highway running between Naples and the southern city of Reggio di Calabria decades after it was first begun. Those need to be addressed first.

 

Additionally, I'm suspicious of politicians advocating huge projects, because of the great possibility for bribes, excess profits and overruns.

 

Thanks to Pat Gabriel

No Italian Job Takes Longer Than This Bridge

Proposed 142 Years Ago, Plan for Link to Sicily Is Now Campaign Issue

Wall Street Journal

By Gabriel Kahn
April 10, 2008

ROME -- In America, politicians score points with voters by railing against bridges to nowhere. In Italy's election on Sunday and Monday, candidates are worked up about a non-bridge to somewhere.

Shortly after the birth of modern Italy in 1865, the government began preparing to build a two-mile span linking the island of Sicily to the mainland. The bridge, which was to connect the Sicilian city of Messina to the Calabria region on the toe of Italy's boot, was to be the physical symbol of the country's unity.

It has been in the planning ever since, and over the years, experts have studied the bridge's impact on everything from Mediterranean trade to bird migration. But ground has yet to be broken, making the bridge an emblem of the chronic indecisiveness that links Italy to the past.

Now, with national elections imminent, the bridge looms as a major campaign issue. It is dividing the two leading candidates, who have different visions of what the country needs.

Silvio Berlusconi, the flamboyant billionaire and two-time center-right prime minister, is determined to build the bridge. He is convinced that Italy needs a grand project to shake off its lethargy and jog its economy. He also believes that only he can succeed where so many others have failed.

"Building this bridge entirely with Italian hands is a matter of national pride," Mr. Berlusconi told a campaign rally recently.

His opponent, bookish former Rome mayor and center-left leader Walter Veltroni, wants Italy to get real. More than a century of talk has led nowhere. He says it's time to put aside grandiose projects and focus on more down-to-earth priorities like improving roads and schools.

Mr. Berlusconi leads in the polls, but Italy's arcane electoral rules make it difficult to predict a clear winner. The result could be a draw, leading to more inaction on issues ranging from the country's crushing debt to youth unemployment -- and of course the bridge.

With a price of nearly 5 billion, or about $7.9 billion, the bridge is an example of profligate public spending, many say. Italy is littered with half-finished projects. Work is still being done on the highway running between Naples and the southern city of Reggio di Calabria decades after it was first begun.

In Messina, plans to create a duty-free port were drawn up in 1951. The tax-exempt port was never realized. But the company to manage it was -- and still exists, with four employees and a 14-member board of directors.

Costly Ruse

Many argue that with its endless planning, the nonexistent Sicily bridge is little more than a costly ruse. "It's a bottomless pit of funding," says Sen. Felice Casson. "The money could be put to much better use elsewhere."

Yet those who support linking Sicily to the mainland say the project has been a relative bargain. In more than 20 years of operation, the company created to build the bridge, Straits of Messina SpA, has spent just $235 million. Company officials say that's a trifle considering the ambition of the project.

To be sure, nothing at all has been built with that money.

The Straits of Messina have been making waves ever since Ulysses narrowly made it between the shores of Scylla on the mainland side and Charybdis on the Sicilian side. According to the Ancient Greek historian Strabo, a Roman consul returning from the Punic wars with Carthage lashed together boats across the straits in order to transport 104 elephants he had captured after battle with the vanquished Hannibal. They were swept away by the currents.

In 1866, Italy's newly created Ministry of Public Works, as one of its first acts, commissioned an engineer to draw up plans for a bridge, which then sat in a drawer for years.

After World War II, the bridge took on new significance: It was to be a technical marvel that would demonstrate Italy's progress to the world. "For us, it was like going to the moon," says Giuseppe Campione, a former governor of Sicily.

In 1955, the government formed a public-private company, the Messina Bridge Group, to study how Sicily could be connected with the mainland. The bridge would also drag Italy's backward south into the modern age. Architects from around the world were drawn to the project -- considered an engineering challenge because of the swift currents, earthquake-prone shores and great distances.

The late marine explorer Jacques Cousteau helped with research. At one point, a study was commissioned to study the effect of the bridge's shadow on fish. None was found.

But 26 years later, the Messina Bridge Group was still studying different options. Some proposed a tunnel. Others wanted a floating tube suspended under the water. Still others put forward a massive suspension bridge.

So, in 1981, the government created a new company, Straits of Messina SpA, to pick up where the old one left off. The new company began hiring engineers and urban planners. By 1992, it unveiled its plan: an elegant, single-span suspension bridge -- longer than any other at the time -- designed by the since-deceased English engineer William Brown.

That year, however, a massive political bribery scandal in Italy, dubbed Tangentopoli, brought down the country's ruling class and froze public-works projects for years. Governments continued to order up studies on how to build the bridge but never got around to doing so.

The bridge has had some close scrapes with birth and death. In 2001, Mr. Berlusconi, then prime minister, decreed the bridge would be built. He called for bids and chose a contractor. Then he was voted out of office before work could begin. His successor, Romano Prodi, put a bill before Parliament that would have killed the project once and for all. The bill narrowly failed.

Today, 142 years after the first plans were laid, debate over the bridge is much the same.

Organized Crime Risk

Environmentalists are steadfastly opposed. So are ferry operators who fear the bridge would put them out of work. Others think the project risks being a boon to Sicily's organized crime.

"Risk? It's not a risk. It's a sure thing," says Luigi Croce, the chief prosecutor of Messina. Several years ago, Mr. Croce conducted a study concluding that if the bridge were built, the Mafia would control everything from local road work to the catering contracts for construction workers.

Leandra D'Antone, a history professor at Rome's La Sapienza University, recalls first hearing talk of the bridge as a child growing up in Sicily. She has spent the bulk of her academic career studying the bridge and documenting its progress. "Will they ever build it?" she asks. "I doubt it."

Nino Calarco was chairman of Straits of Messina SpA for a decade before resigning in frustration in 2001. "Ulysses was warned about the dangers of this place," Mr. Calarco says.

"I can see the straits from my house," he says. "There's still no bridge there. One day there will be, but I'll be dead and buried by then."

 

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