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."

Comments

Cost vs Bay Bridge retrofit

[guacamole]

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?

Re:Suspension bridge

[mrchaotica]

Hey, don't knock it. The Akashi Strait bridge -- which, as the article mentions, is the current record holder -- is built directly across a major fault line. They actually had a big earthquake during construction, and had to make the section in the middle a few feet longer to compensate! : S

nusefull

[silian87]

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!