Italian Court Now Blocks €13.5bn Sicily Bridge Project

Italy’s long-awaited €13.5 billion Messina Bridge, intended as the first fixed link to Sicily, has hit a major setback after the Court of Auditors blocked construction.

Set to be the world’s longest suspension bridge, the 3.7 km bridge across the Strait of Messina was approved in August by Italy’s economic planning committee.

The approval cleared the way for construction to begin under an international consortium led by Milan-based Webuild Group, operating as the general contractor through Eurolink.

But on October 29, the court questioned the bridge’s procurement and cost projections. The judges who reviewed the validity of a 2005 bridge tender cited cost discrepancies and raised concerns over possible EU procurement rule violations.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticised the decision as an “intolerable interference” in government plans, while Deputy PM Matteo Salvini described it as a serious obstacle to a project meant to boost the economies of Sicily and Calabria, Italy’s poorest regions.

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Legal experts note that the government could proceed despite the court’s ruling, though this carries potential legal risks.

Nicola Lupo, professor of constitutional law at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome, explained that the court’s verdict would be entered as a “registration of reservation” in the parliamentary record.

She added, “Such a warning over the bridge’s viability could serve as a premise for future lawsuits.”

The Messina Bridge project, first proposed in the late 1960s and revived repeatedly over the decades, is designed to become the world’s longest suspension bridge. 

Stretching 3,666 metres, it will carry six motorway lanes, two railway tracks, and service lanes across one of Europe’s most challenging geological settings.

Its steel towers rise 399 metres, taller than the Empire State Building, and suspension cables span 5,320 metres in length.

Webuild, which leads the international Eurolink consortium, said the bridge would transform mobility in southern Italy. In August, Pietro Salini, the company’s chief executive, called the project a “defining moment for Italy’s construction and engineering sectors.”

However, protests over environmental, seismic, and cost risks, combined with a court ruling, have cast doubt on the Messina Bridge and Italy’s plan to link Sicily with the mainland.

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