MILAN (AP) — Italy cleared the way Wednesday to build the world’s largest suspension bridge linking the Italian mainland with Sicily in a massive 13.5 billion euro ($15.5 billion) infrastructure project that has been long delayed by debates over its scale, earthquake threats, environmental impact and the specter of mafia interference.
The Strait of Messina Bridge will be “the biggest infrastructure project in the West,” Transport Minister Matteo Salvini told a news conference in Rome, after an interministerial committee with oversight of strategic public investments approved the project.
Premier Giorgia Meloni said that the bridge “will be an engineering symbol of global significance.’’
Salvini cited studies showing the project will create 120,000 jobs a year and accelerate growth in economically lagging southern Italy, as billions more in investments are made in roads and other infrastructure projects accompanying the bridge.
This video is extremely relevant and points to reasons his is impossible, and the Italian government being currently run by an actual Nazis bodes poorly to any megaproject https://youtu.be/ei-bG4XfB4s
I talked to my italian colleague and ge just laughed, saying that this has been the standard nonsense political campaign promise in Italy since forever. Its so dumb it hurts.
He’s right Berlusconi promised to make this bridge for his whole political life, he spent billions of public money to research for possibilities on how to make the bridge and all expert said it would be an ecological and humanitarian disaster that won’t last if made. The most optimistic engineer proposed to make a tunnel like the one in the English channel
I’m Italian.
The governments have been talking about it since the 90s. They OK’d 15 billions but will likely cost the double and much of it will be wasted in bureaucracy and corruption. Nonetheless this money will not be spent solely on the bridge, but also to enhance the entire Sicilian railway network.
Also Sicily has 5 millions of inhabitants, it’s a lot of people, served only by slow and downsized boats. It takes hours to go through the strait. Furthermore it’s great both for the people and for the goods to be able to reach Berlin from Palermo by train.
I don’t know whether this is the right choice and whether Italy has enough resources to accomplish that, but if it works out I think it’s a great opportunity.
megaprojects autism will eat good tonight
With three car lanes in each direction flanked by a double-track railway, the bridge would have the capacity to carry 6,000 cars an hour and 200 trains a day
based
Getting downsized in 3…
As long as the trains stay it’s still going to be based
More like “completely unrealistic”
Bridge could count toward NATO spending target
The project could provide a boost to Italy’s commitment to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP targeted by NATO, as the government has indicated it would classify the bridge as defense-related, helping it to meet a 1.5% security component. Italy argues that the bridge would form a strategic corridor for rapid troop movements and equipment deployment to NATO’s southern flanks, qualifying it as a “security-enhancing infrastructure.”
A group of more than 600 professors and researchers signed a letter earlier this summer opposing the military classification, noting that such a move would require additional assessments to see if it could withstand military use.
Wouldn’t all logistics infrastructure apply here because as Ukraine showed defensive war is very much logistics based
It does. Literally all infrastructure spending can be used against the 5% spending goal.
That’s how they got it through, Trump got a bigger number to boast about, NATO countries got to include all infrastructure so that there isn’t really that much of an increase above the 2% spending goal.
Oh wow, that’s pretty good!
Also support for Ukraine counts as well.
Wouldn’t that be a net decrease then?
Assuming the 2% before was on stuff like guns, soldier salaries, weapons, tanks, etc. and fuel/maintenance, does this now not include stuff they were already spending on roads, bridges and raiways?
Most countries are not spending more than 3% of their GDP on infrastructure every year as far as I know. Not for the stuff actually covered by this at least.
It might be a net decrease in defence spending for some countries, but then there’s the argument that infrastructure spending is indeed defence spending.
This was the reason for the “increased spending” targets, to include basic infrastructure.
As for withstand military use, it can either take the weight or it can’t. However there is a can it take a missile factor. But honestly that would be there anyway.
Honestly if it works economically, I think this kind of infrastructure project should at least partially count towards NATO targets. Not all of war is moving troops, some of it is logistics, keeping your citizenry relatively happy, and an accumulated history of economic investment. If they can manage to get a lot of that money into workers’ hands, that alone is a huge benefit when combined with the transferrable skills you’re reinforcing in your workforce.
Not that we should have to justify infrastructure as military expenses. But I do think it kinda works.
Not the joke bridge, ai yi yi
Meanwhile trump blows $200 million in tax payers’ money for a fucking golden ballroom at the WH. “Just more ways to spend my money.”
Don’t forget about the 75 billion for ICE. I cannot for the life of me imagine why this agency needs such an astronomical budget, unless it is to turn it into a secret police force – which seems highly likely in the case of this US government.
Talk about a non sequitur
It isn’t. You apparently don’t know what that phrase means. It is related because the discussion about how tax money is being allocated for infrastructure projects. In one case, to benefit the people of the country’s commerce and the other case, money being wasted on tasteless “upgrades.”
So every public infrastructure project in every country is cause for a reminder of the dumbassery going on here? Both projects are coming out of taxpayer money, and that’s where the similarity ends and the non sequitur-ness begins. As you say, one is actually being used for something useful.
If you want to talk about wasted money, how about that bridge in India with a 90° turn? At least that one is, you know, a bridge.
He’s turning it into his palace. I don’t think he’s going to give up the WH.
