A controversial bridge linking mainland Italy to the island of Sicily, taller than the Eiffel Tower with a central span almost three times longer than San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge, got the go-ahead yesterday.
An international consortium led by the Italian firm Impregilo SpA nailed the $6 billion contract on Wednesday.
The 60-metre-wide bridge (artist's rendition shown) will be capable of handling 6,000 vehicles each hour, as well as 200 trains a day.
However, the Sicilian representative of the World Wildlife Fund is calling the structure an "environmental disaster" and Italy's Green Party describes it as "a Trojan horse for the Mafia."
The following is the official announcement from Impregilo:
*********************** Impregilo S.p.A., Italy’s leading infrastructure constructor, has been awarded the top score on its tender for the construction of the bridge over the Straits of Messina, the contract-awarder announced today.
Impregilo S.p.A. will therefore act as General Contractor for construction of the bridge; it holds a 45 percent share in the vehicle formed for the project, whose other investors are Sacyr SA (18.70%), Società Italiana Condotte (15%), Cooperativa CMC (13%), Ishikawajma-Harima Heavy Industries Co. (6.30%) and Aci Consorzio Stabile of the Gavio group (2%).
The project engineer is Cowi.
The General Contractor has arranged a pre-financing for an amount equivalent to 15% of the project with Banca Intesa, CARIGE, Banca Popolare Italiana.
The contract was awarded on a 3.88 billion euro tender, a reduction of 12.33% on the basic bid price of 4.43 billion euro; construction will be completed within a maximum timeframe of 70 months.
The bid was drawn up after extensive analysis over the last 12 months by Impregilo, together with the engineering and research units of the other companies in the grouping and with Cowi, during which all project components, construction technologies and methods were examined and assessed; based on their analysis, the grouping were able to formulate a cost-effective bid with an outstanding technical content.
The members of the Impregilo grouping boast significant experience in this type of construction project; more specifically, Impregilo built the second suspension bridge over the Bosphorus in Turkey, for a length of 1087 m; Cowi engineered the Storebealt bridge linking Denmark and Sweden, while Japan’s IHI was lead company on the construction of the Akashi Kaikyo, the world's longest suspension bridge.
With a length of 3,666 metres, the bridge over the Straits of Messina will be the longest bridge in the world, with a central span of 3,300 metres and a deck of 60.4 metres. The bridge will feature six traffic lanes, two service lanes and two railway lines.
"We are very proud to have been awarded this important contract for a project that will represent the state-of-the-art in Europe and worldwide," said Impregilo S.p.A. Chief Executive Officer Alberto Lina.
"I believe that the decisive element was our detailed project analysis," commented Alberto Rubegni, head of Engineering & Construction at Impregilo. "This involved development of special assembly techniques on all technical, planning and construction components, with the result that we were able to present a highly competitive bid."
"The award of this contract is the outcome of an extremely complex team effort that began in 2002 and involved 130 people from all the companies in the grouping, together with the specialists at Denmark’s COWI and the scientists of the IHI research centres in Japan," added Alberto Lina.
Impregilo is the constructor of some of Europe’s and the world’s most important infrastructures.
Current general contractor projects in Italy include the Milan-Turin and Bologna-Florence high-speed railways, the Mestre Orbital, the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway, the Monte Bianco-Aosta motorway and the Genoa and Naples underground railways.
Abroad, Impregilo is working on the St. Gothard railway tunnel in Switzerland, the Caracas-Tuy Medio and Puerto Cabello-Encrujiada railways in Venezuela, the Athens underground, the Karahnjukar dam in Iceland and the Mazar dam in Ecuador, and the Portland tunnel in the USA.
**********************