(Tiper Stock Exchange) – Green light for the conversion into law of the decree on the bridge over the Strait of Messina: the Senate floor approved with 103 votes in favour, 49 against and three abstentions. In the presence of the Minister of Infrastructure, Matthew Salvini. An applause erupted from the centre-right benches. The provision, which was approved by the Chamber on 16 May, defines, among other things, the structure of the company Stretto di Messina Spa and restarts planning and design activities.
Today was “a historic day”, according to the Minister of Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, after the definitive green light in the Senate for the decree on the bridge over the Strait of Messina. In a press conference convened immediately afterwards, the Minister explained that “the works will start by the summer of 2024 and end in 2030″. The bridge, he added “it will save 6 billion euros for Sicilians and will bring 100,000 jobs. Travel times will be reduced and the environment will benefit”. “It’s not about the Messina Bridge – concluded Salvini – but about the Italian Bridge”
Salvini defined the bridge over the Strait of Messina as a work that “It will be studied by engineering students all over the world and I’m proud of that.” The Minister added that the bridge represents “just compensation to Calabria and Sicily, after 50 years of broken promises” and “unites the whole country”.
Going into more detail, for the construction of the bridge over the Strait of Messina, the next steps are “the appointment of the company’s Board of Directors” which was reactivated with the decree just approved by the Senate. The definitive ok to the decree, he said, “is a fundamental step, because without the Strait of Messina company there would be no one to work on the bridge”. “With the next manoeuvre, in the autumn – added the Minister – the first appropriations will be provided for the start of the works. The cost of the work envisaged in the Def is around 14 billion. Updated studies are underway.”
The Minister concluded by saying that the bridge over the Strait of Messina will also become “a tourist attraction, will bring a tourist induced”, anticipating the intention to make the work “visitable.