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Italy To Build World's Longest Suspension Bridge
Rei writes "According to the BBC, Italy has just granted contracts to begin work on the world's longest suspension bridge, connecting the island of Sicily to the mainland. The nearly four kilometer-long bridge across the Messina Straits is to carry a double six-lane highway and four high-speed railway tracks. Its main span will be 3.3 kilometers long; this would over 1.5x the current record-holder, the 1991-meter Akashi-Kaikyo bridge."
If your name is Sonny, don't stop at the tollbooth.
Yeah, well I sure beat the Italians wish they spent more money on their army after WWII. Its a shame they had to rebuild their entire freaking country. History, doesn't teach us anything.
But, consider having a car accident or car trouble on the a bridge... it'll cause havoc. And the longer it is, the harder it will be to mediate such problems.
In either case, it's still cool.
We're italian and that's only an announce. Do you really believe that we can build something like that? Well, an interesting reading about it on grillo's blog
the nearly 4 km bridge is over 1.5x the 1.991 km japanese bridge?
well, that's a logically accurate statement, but so is the statement that gw bush is 1.5x smarter than your average chimpanzee
the truth is he is more like 2x as smart, and same with the bridges
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
In an earthquake and volcanic zone. You gotta admire their pzazz.
I seem to remember they had electrical transmission lines across there, decades ago, pretty impressive.
This is to request slashdotters in Italy to track and tell us the role of Linux/OSS if any, in this project. If one knows how Linux can be of use, I'd welcome the information too. I wonder whether Linux/OSS can play a role.
No it's just for us lowlife ;).
... Standards and Practices !
PenGun
Do What Now ???
If only they made it a little longer, say, 42,000 km. And also up instead of sideways.
I am slightly surprised that this project is expected to cost at most as much, if not less, than the extected cost of seismic retrofit for the relatively shorter San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (that project involves the construction of a completely new replacement for the eastern span of the bridge). How come? I suppose one reason is that the cost of everything in Bay Area is much much higher than in southern Italy. What about other factors? Is there something that makes the Italian design inherently cheaper to implement?
A more appropriate Paul Simon song to parody would be Bridge Over Troubled Water. Good parody though.
This ad space for rent.
It's election time again in Italy and Berlusconi needs the votes of Sicilies citizens.
So he pulls out the old bridge plans like he did the last time and the time before.
Don't expect to travel to Sicily on try feet too soon.
Given its length, and the presumably large number of people that could be on it at a time, I presume it would be a potential target for terrorists or organized crime (hey, it's Sicily...) based on past threats against bridges and tunnels by terrorist groups.
How would they prevent against this? It seems such a bridge has two critical failure points at both ends and one or more in the middle.
I know they have water to cross, so its size doesn't appear to be the motivation, as say for the tallest building etc. but I think these are issues which (sadly) need to be considered.
Indy Media Watch-Proctologist of the Internet
>Yeah, well I sure beat the Italians wish they spent more money on their army after WWII. Its a shame they had to rebuild their entire freaking country. History, >doesn't teach us anything.
.... :)
;)
hi, i write from italy, emh, the bridge is new, is not rebuilded after the WWII, its a shame that the US Gov spent too much money in army to make war all around the world instead spending in istruction and story book.
BWT the bridge is not a good things, many of the people living in Sicilia and Calabria don't want it, cos will be devastating for enviroment.. but the Italy "president" Silvio Berlusconi (bleah!!) need to do this for glory and ammiration of people who don't know the real story of the bridge.
ok. sorry from my bad english, shame that italian gov didnt spent some money in english book
greetings from the Family
I had heard Rumours that the project may be suspended
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
The US does build them, except they don't lead from anywhere to anywhere.
i d=aWA7joXO0bRk&refer=us
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&s
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
having a trouble in a tunnel is even scarier than having a trouble on a bridge !
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
This is just a political manoeuvre by the Governemt.
They don't have the money to support it.
None seems to be really interested in such a thing (not even in Sicilia).
Scientists warn against it: the Etna volcano is just 50 Km far from there.
But stock quotes of the company that should build the bridge are going up any time someone quotes the bridge.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
For a short period of time, Storebaeltsbroen held the record, until Akashi was built.
:)
I actually crossed them both at the same day a few years ago. I wonder if that entitles me to a place in the Guiness book of records
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
If we needed 'em, we'd build 'em. I'm not into pouring money into pet projects that gain us nothing but a world record that'll last for just a few years, especially at the cost of something like a military.
... State sponsored construction projects are never completed in time. IF they ever get completed. The Guinness book of records editors should't hold their breath.
Also, an enormous amount of public money has been dumped for decades into the southern regions, ("Cassa per il Mezzogiorno") to improve its economic situation, ending up to serve the interests of the mafia controlled building firms.
As reported here and as most Italians recall, a couple years ago a guy called Pietro Lunardi said that things like the mafia will always exist and we must live with them and they cannot stop us from spending money on public projects.
This guy was, and still is, the Italian Minister of Infrastructures and Transport.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
Hasn't somebody already done this?
This project may fail. But then not for technological reasons.
Several previous attempts of multibillion-dollar, EU-funded projects in that region have failed somewhere between Rome and Palermo. Money, people, and concrete have disappeared and there were never any witnesses. Hope things have changed.
the suspense!
Considering that the necessity for this bridge has been hotly contested, with many alleging that it is nothing more than a gigantic kickback for many of Berlusconi's business friends ... I would suggest that you try to choose a better example ...
...
This bridge is to Italy what the "Big Dig" is to the US
Since when did any new bridge like this in America include more than one rail line, if any?
Software freedom...I love it!
Yes, it's a "mafia target". Who do you think will be siphoning off a lot of the contracting money going into building it? They're not interested in blowing it up.
http://www.welton.it/davidw/
The Mackinac Bridge here in michigan is 5 miles long, and held the record for longest suspension span until 1998 at 3/4 mile or so... Is this bridge just being built with NO middle column?? Anyways are some fun links for the Mackinac Bridge (that nobody knows exists it seems): here's all the stats and one pic: http://bridgepros.com/projects/Mackinac/Mackinac.h tm
here's the google images link for nice pics:
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&c2c off=1&safe=off&q=mackinac+bridge&spell=1
^^^ and why in the hell doesnt slashdot support carriage returns on win2k + mozilla 1.7???
First time I ever really laughed with a parody like this. A pity about the -1.
"Those innocent fun games of the hallucination generation"
Can you find Italy on a map?
Please be aware that this is a plan that's been around for more than twenty years now, and it's not feasible. The wind is just too strong (been there last month, I saw it), the zone is a sismic one and generally noone cares anyway, because the roads that would bring people to the bridge (the infamous Salerno-Reggio Calabria) are ancient to be kind and generally a wreck.
Be also aware that this is election time, and our prime citizen Berlusconi will lose. So he bring out this old project, to gain some thousands of votes, and will leave it to the next administration to realize. Same old story...
(see the Mose project to protect Venice from floodings)
Please, call it engineering... Some of us, civil eng also read /.
No, it's not what you think.
The Japanese one got finished in 1998. But the "viaduc de Millau" opened to the public late 2004 and claims 2.440 meters.
French Wikipedia article: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viaduc_de_Millau/
Or "Google image" on : "viaduc de Millau"
Now, I don't say it's longer than the Golden Gate or the Japanese one, but here in Europe french people brag quite a lot about this bridge, which I've seen and is for sure very impressive...
The Italian Ferry Assistance Association has lobbied hard to prevent these newfangled "bridges" from being built, and if they are to ensure the IFAA will continue to make the same profits regardless of ferry traffic.
HEADLINE: /. mods serenaded from under bridge and bite hook, line and sinker. Troll deserves a +5 Troll for their wonderful parody of "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" .
The recently built viaduc of Milllau, France, is bigger : 2 460 m !
See the impressive pics at http://www.leviaducdemillau.com/ .
Yeah, well I sure beat the Italians wish they spent more money on their army after WWII. Its a shame they had to rebuild their entire freaking country. History, doesn't teach us anything.
... led Italy from 1922 to 1943. He created a fascist state through the use of state terror and propaganda. Using his charisma, total control of the media and intimidation of political rivals, he disassembled the existing democratic government system. His entry into World War II on the side of Nazi Germany made Italy a target for Allied attacks and ultimately led to his downfall and death."
Are all Republicans idiots? Mussolini's Italy entered WWII as an ally of Hitler's Germany! From Wikipedia:
"Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini
And who the hell is going to destroy the U.S. anyway? Mexico? Face it: the more countries the U.S. unnecessarily attacks and bullies, the more anti-american fear and hatred grows in the rest of the world.
The BBC got it slightly wrong. The Italian bridge will be the highest bridge in the world. The current record is the Millau bridge in France (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millau_viaduct) build by the company that was created by Eiffel!
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
With Italy's economy in deep trouble right now, and the prime minister's popularity sliding, big infrastructure is an instant financial kick-starter.
The government estimates that construction could provide 40,000 local business opportunities in Sicily and southern Italy.
The problem is that any big infrastructure work is also of interest to organised criminals.
Magistrate Vincenzo Barbaro
The mafia could cash in, says magistrate Vincenzo Barbaro
"The mafia is likely to try to get involved in secondary activities like putting tarmac on the roads or providing concrete," says magistrate Vincenzo Barbaro in Messina's elegant courthouse.
"We're already working with the anti-mafia commission on a project to monitor suspicious business activity, so we hope we can prevent this."
In a restaurant overlooking the cloudless strait of Messina, locals enjoy fish caught fresh from these waters. They have heard arguments about the bridge for nearly 30 years.
"It won't be beautiful for us," says one woman.
"It's too big and I don't want to live in its shadow."
"We have water shortages here. Why don't they sort those out before building a bridge?" says her husband.
"It's a dream, nothing more."
Four kilometres long.
That's a lot of places to throw bodies off...
Yeah, no US american know mexican's true stragery is to immigranting then blend in the society and repeat the same steps. once they reach to certain point, VOILA..
UNITED STATES OF MEXICO!
it is coming near your st.. erm.. near you.. yeah!
Oh, so that is what the bridge will be singing.
I wonder if Mr. Berlusconi has heard of a place called Sardinia.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
good god, your English is exactly the kind of thing that make me ashamed to be from italy. somehow, everybody seems to expect me to speak like you do. i suggest you stop blaming your sorry life on the government and pick up a book or take some lesson, or something.
Global warming is a cube.
Vasco da Gama Bridge, here in Lisbon is the longest in Europe 17,185 m long. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama_Bridge/ , http://images.google.pt/images?hs=68N&hl=pt-PT&cli ent=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:pt-PT:official&q=pon te%20vasco%20da%20gama&btnG=Pesquisar&sa=N&tab=wi/
I am an italian guy, and I think this bridge is simple unuseful!!! It cost a lot of money to a country that have money problems, and maiby it is dangerous too! Boat exist!
Free As In Freedom
I lived in Sicily for a few years and loved riding the traghette when traveling to Calabria. Sure, it's insanely inconvenient, expensive, slow, etc., but that's what made it so much fun. Nothing like a half hour break to stand out and enjoy the sea breeze.
Some other points--
There is a fairly major fault line between Sicily and the mainland. Crossing this with a bridge, regardless of how well built it is, may not be the best idea.
It's fairly well understood that hte Mafia is involved in the ferry business. Many Sicilians believe that hte mob would never allow a bridge to be built, and I would tend to agree with them.
Burlusconi may well be making empty promises. I don't remember him being too popular in the South when I was living there.
If a bridge IS built, despite the many difficulties, it would help the economic situation in Sicily, or at the very least alleviate the high price of shipping goods there.
But if I ever make it back and they're still there, I can promise you that no matter how nice the bridge is, I'll take the ferry.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
Mod this informative! The people who think this is 'cool' should understand and consider the position of many Italians on this issue, which is quite accurately expressed in the above. Not all of us get off on huge, wasteful expenditures of money just because an admirable engineering feat is accomplished in the process. Wean yourselves off Wired magazine.
This bridge 99% likely will not be built. If this bridge stood over the straits the power of Mafia in Sicily would collapse. They couldn't keep the local population in poverty and opression by selling drinking water (under their exclusive mafia control) for hyper-inflated prices, because this bridge is planned to carry two giant aquaducts inside its deck, too.
With this bridge, Sicily would be integrated into Italy and central government and police would have much better access to the island to keep the order and uphold the law. Five years after this bridge is completed the mafia would be history! Godfathers will not allow that, they will terrorize the population so nobody dares to work on the bridge construction and importing foreign labour will drive costs up. There will be sabotage, bad concrete mixed, load-cable wires cut, improper steel used, etc.
Unless military law is imposed in Sicily and enforced with the same cruel determination as dictator mussolini did in the 1930s, the mafia will manage to halt the bridge's construction. As soon as the brdige is ready, lotsa northern cops could be moved into the island and organized crime rooted up in a normal civil manner, no need for the italian army any more.
I hope the italians will have that 1% luck and the bridge completes. It would be a tremendous GLOBAL achievement to get rid of the sicilian mafia, the capo of all mafii. The calabrians would break then and finally the US-based italian mafia could be destroyed, too. Judge Giovanni Falcone did not die in vain if this giant bridge is indeed built by 2012!
I was vaguely aware that the japanese bridge was the biggest. The second biggest being the danish Storebaeltsbro - That bridge is over 6 km long?! Or do they measure it a different way?
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
humber bridge was the longest bridge built for political reasons , goes from nowhere to nowhere , here is a link http://bridgepros.com/projects/Humber/HumberBridge .htm
men will do for beer
History, doesn't teach us anything.
;)
Especially not punctuation
One good turn - gets all the covers.
"Not to knock your poor English, but he wasn't implying that he thought y'all..."
I find this incredibly funny.
I can tell you I had a wonderful time in Sicily for 10 days about 20 years ago.
A 25 hour train ride from Paris over the Alps with a beautiful Amherst prospective Italian teacher got me some basic grammar, we stayed with her Italian teacher.
Messina, on the tip of the mainland has a beautiful Carravagio museum with a massive work that shows gorgeous gold highlights (Carravagio's specialty) with artful lighting.
I recommend going before the bridge is completed, assuming it is a train bridge as well. The reason is that the train from Paris actually got itself onto a ferry (!) and then proceded to trundle off onto the rails in Sicily where it would continue around the perimeter in a clockwise fashion. One famous city it goes by is Syracusa, another is Taormina, the vacation spot.
Sicily has welcomed centuries upon centuries of intentional and nonintentional ship crossings so it has ruins going back to the Byzantine Empire I believe.
It has amazing food especially if you can stay with an Italian family with a grandma who will not stop making endless courses at the stove even though you are full - "Mangea, Mangea" (Eat, eat!). The vegetables and fruits are incredible.
At home people drink water with a small amount of smoky tasting wine in the bottom, which is quite refreshing.
People do not stop at traffic lights and apparently you must accompany a woman outdoors at night. Women must not show their shoulders in summertime for fear of being mistaken about their line of work.
There is a wonderful island called Volcan with black volcanic sand. A hydroski ferry will take you there. Apparently the week before we went there, the other ferry exploded. The family was so kind they didn't tell me about it in advance, on the other hand the fact was ignored. Sicily is that kind of place. If you are a couple, go. In the evening at twilight which comes late in summer, couples will "fare passagiata", walking slowly by the water with an arm through an elbow. I remember it very well.
The name of the country IS ALREADY "los estados unidos mexicanos"
The number of disheveled Toll Takers increased, as did the amount of road rage durring rush hour traffic
Do you know how many people and tons of goods used to cross the channel by ship?
A couple of magnitude orders more than the Canale di Messina!
The distance between the two sides is 20 times larger in the British Channel.
And, moreover, there is no active volcano snoring close to the tunnel.
I'd spend those money and efforts in something more useful or less useless at least.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
They include the length of the "ramps" to and from the actual suspension bridge.
No need to stop and bother the poor collectors. We mail the check every month. We wouldn't mind if you stopped by the post office and got them to deliver it in a reasonable amount of time.
Brilliant, this is why I have the +6 modifier for trolls and flamebait.
In the US, our government has allocated $223 million for a 6300 foot long, 200 foot high (~2 km, 60 meter) bridge Not too far out of line when you scale down the Italian bridge.
They are going to put it between Ketchican, Alaska (population 14500) and Gravina Island (population 50).
Sicilians may have invented organized crime, but the US Congress has perfected it.
i built that same bridge already in the demo version of railroad tycoon 3. =D
0 0-7496_4-10242381.html
(free download of the game)
http://www.download.com/Railroad-Tycoon-3-demo/30
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." -Jesus Christ The Lord's Prayer
Yes, Sicilia is on the African tectonic plate: http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/EarthSC102Notes/102PTEa rthHist.htm
I thought that the Rio-Antirio bridge which was completed in 2004 in Greece had surpassed that record.
Humber bridge in northern England has a 1410m span (1158m for the Mackinac)and was opened in 1981.
Still a very impressive piece of engineering though
"The distance between the two sides is 20 times larger in the British Channel."
Don't you mean 20 times smaller than the Channel Tunnel?
The Channel Tunnel is approximatly 50 km's long wheras the proposed bridge will be just under 4 km's long (and only 3.3 km's over the main span).
Also, while the area does get earthquakes (although less frequently than in the area of Japan where the current longest bridge in the world is located), I am unsure exactly which 'ative' volcano you are referring to.
If I spoke as good English as you do, I would be more grateful to poor speakers like the rest of us. Indeed, it is thanks to our English that yours stands out and you can impress your interlocutor, right? You are right, though, that the poster should not blame the State but just do something about it. If he cares, that is.
Good; it was intended to be! After all, saying it is one thing, but who the heck would write it, if not on purpose? I've gotta stick to my (Georgia) roots somehow...
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
This is Italy, after all. Maybe in a couple of hundred years it will be finished.
Proverbs 21:19