$10 Billion cost, lack of political will, whipsaw currents, earthquakes, high 
winds, migrating birds, the slow northward drift of Sicily, Sicilian 
fatalistic temperament, threat of Mafia graft are obstacles to be overcome.

Positive substantial economic benefits and profound psychological impact 
anticipated for the South.
-------------------------------
ITALY PLANS GRAND SPAN TO SICILY

By Tom Hundley
Chicago Tribune
Tribune Foreign Correspondent
March 26, 2002

MESSINA, Italy -- In Greek mythology, Scylla was a six-headed monster that 
feasted on sailors; its partner, Charybdis, was a whirlpool that swallowed 
whole ships. Together, they made the Strait of Messina one of the 
Mediterranean's most treacherous passages.

It is not known how these two ancient ogres feel about Italy's audacious 
design to link them with the world's longest single-span suspension bridge, 
but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who happens to be Italy's richest 
businessman, a man accustomed to thinking big, says the bridge between the 
Italian mainland and Sicily will be built.

Construction is supposed to begin in 2004, and if all goes according to plan, 
the new bridge's center span, 2.05 miles long, will nearly double that of the 
current record-holder, Japan's Akashi Kaikyo bridge, which links Kobe with 
Awaji Island.

"It's not a question of engineering, it's a question of political will, and 
we now have a prime minister who has a strong concept of doing instead of 
just talking," said Carlo Bucci, managing director of the public sector 
company that has been supervising the project since 1981.

The idea of bridging the strait has been on the drawing boards since the 
Punic wars when Roman generals came up with a plan for a "floating bridge" of 
timber. More recently, in 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi, the father of modern 
Italy, proposed a bridge to symbolically consolidate his unification of the 
nation.

In 1971, a "fixed link" between Sicily and the mainland was declared a 
national priority, but Italy had neither the technology nor the political 
will to make it happen.

Many obstacles to overcome

Whipsaw currents, earthquakes, high winds, migrating birds and the slow 
northward drift of Sicily--about 3 feet per century--were the main physical 
obstacles that had to be overcome.

The currents will be avoided by building the steel towers on dry land. New 
technology and materials perfected by Japanese bridge-builders will enable 
the span to withstand earthquakes measuring up to 7.1--similar to the quake 
that flattened Messina in 1908.

"If we have another earthquake like that one, the middle of bridge will be 
the safest place to be," said Antonio Campagno, a meteorologist with the 
bridge company.

High winds--up to 100 m.p.h.--posed the greatest technical challenge for the 
engineers. A solution was inspired by Formula One auto racing.

"We designed a new deck profile based on the airfoils on the Formula One 
cars. The stronger the wind, the more it pushes down on the deck and reduces 
oscillation," said Bucci. The bridge is designed to withstand winds up to 130 
m.p.h.

The northward migration of Sicily is considered insignificant because 
suspension bridges have a built-in capacity to expand and contract. As for 
the migrating birds, they will simply have to watch where they fly.

Current plans call for the bridge to carry eight traffic lanes, four service 
lanes and two rail lines. It will have a capacity of about 100,000 cars and 
trucks and 200 trains a day. The road surface will be 230 feet above sea 
level--high enough for the U.S. Navy's aircraft carriers to pass beneath.

Economic benefits

The estimated cost of the project is $5 billion, half of it to be covered by 
Italian taxpayers and half by private investors, all of it part of 
Berlusconi's pledge of $110 billion to improve Italy's infrastructure and 
create tens of thousands of jobs over the next decade.

Messina Mayor Salvatore Leonardi already is toting up the benefits. "It will 
bring 8,000 jobs for us. It will transform the city--new roads, new 
infrastructure, new businesses," he said.

Destroyed first by the 1908 earthquake and again by Allied bombs in 1943, 
Messina has one of the highest unemployment rates in traditionally 
impoverished Sicily. Across the water, Calabria is one of the poorest regions 
on the Italian mainland.

Politicians and businessmen see the bridge as part of a larger project to 
close the gap between Italy's poor south and its prosperous north--a project 
into which successive governments have sunk billions to no noticeable effect.

"The bridge is not enough. If you're looking at it only in terms of Sicily 
and Calabria, the bridge is nothing. For this to be something more than a 
symbol, we have to improve the high-speed trains, the highways and 
infrastructure all the way up to Naples," said Nino Calarco, an Italian 
senator and local newspaper editor who also serves as unpaid president of the 
bridge company.

In addition to the anticipated economic benefits, the bridge also is expected 
to have a profound psychological impact on Sicily, an island known for its 
quirky and somewhat fatalistic temperament.

"The psychology of Sicily in its most negative aspect is characterized by the 
notion that things can't be changed. Sicilians think, `Things have been like 
this for centuries so they will continue like this centuries,'" explained 
Bucci, the bridge company's managing director. "But the bridge represents a 
real change and Sicilians will understand this."

Mafia looms over project

The fear in the minds of many is that the modern-day Scylla and Charybdis 
lurking in these straits are the Cosa Nostra and the 
'Ndrangheta--respectively, the Sicilian and Calabrian branches of the Mafia. 
Both have made careers of swallowing up major state construction projects.

Calarco created a stir last year by declaring that "If the Mafia is capable 
of building the bridge, then they are welcome." Last week, he was more 
circumspect: "Do you think that when bridges and highways are built in 
northern Italy, there is no Mafia?" he said.

"Building the bridge is the beginning of the real struggle against the Mafia. 
It is the struggle against economic backwardness and isolation," he said.

Polls show that Italians, by a wide majority, think the bridge should be 
built. The polls also show that many have doubts that any Italian government 
can actually pull it off.

"When I was 8 years old my father told me, `I will never see the bridge, but 
you will see it for sure,'" said Pippo Saici, a Messina taxi driver. "Now I 
am 60 years old and I am wondering if my grandchildren will see it."