Italian companies to build Sicily bridge, deputy PM says

By Alvise Armellini

ROME (Reuters) -An Italian-led consortium is likely to be given the contract to build the 10-billion-euro ($11 billion) Messina bridge to connect Sicily to the mainland, Infrastructure Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said on Tuesday.

A consortium led by Italian group Salini Impregilo, now called Webuild, won the original 2006 European tender for the bridge, but the plan was subsequently withdrawn over cost concerns.

Rome’s new nationalist government has revived the project, and although it is receiving a lot of interest from foreign companies, Salvini said he thought the original Italian group could keep the contract.

The government “has received expressions of interest from all over the world, including China”, but the aim is to have the bridge built by Italian firms, Salvini said at the Foreign Press Association in Rome.

Earlier on Tuesday, business daily Il Sole 24 Ore said the China Communications Construction Company was interested in the Messina bridge project, in an interview with the group’s Deputy General Manager Pei Minshan.

“I’m happy that there is an interest from many subjects from all over the world”, but the ones who won the 2006 tender “are the ones who will most likely continue with the final version of the project”, Salvini said.

Webuild had no comment on the minister’s remarks.

Last month, as the company unveiled its 2023-2025 industrial plan, its General Manager Corporate and Finance Massimo Ferrari told Reuters: “We still believe the Messina bridge project is doable and that it would bring tremendous added value”.

The ambition to connect Sicily to the Italian mainland dates back to ancient Roman times. In more recent decades, a succession of Italian governments toyed with the idea, but never managed to get it off the ground.

Salvini said he was confident works could start in the summer of 2024 and that the proposed suspension bridge, with a record-length central span of 3.2-3.3 kilometres (2.0-2.1 miles), would be earthquake- and wind-proof.

He said the bridge was not eligible for funding from the European Union-backed post-COVID recovery plan, but added the government was in talks with the EU transport commissioner and the European Investment Bank over other financing options.

($1 = 0.9126 euros)

(Reporting by Alvise Armellini Editing by Keith Weir and Mark Potter)