October The long-standing project to build the world’s largest bridge between Sicily and mainland Italy has cleared one of its final remaining obstacles and now seems certain to go ahead – the announcement of the winning tender by the Italian construction company Impregilo was made late last week. Impregilo will begin work on the project next year and is expected to finish construction of the world’s largest bridge by 2012. The 3.8 billion euro bridge will cross the Strait of Messina with a single 3300 metre central span, eclipsing the current longest span of the Akashi Kaikyo bridge in Japan (1991 metres) by two thirds again. The bridge’s total length will be 3,666 metres, with a deck of 60.4 metres, six traffic lanes, two service lanes and two railway lines. The bridge’s statistics dwarf all of the World's Greatest Bridges.

Massive political turmoil has surrounded the bridge since it was first conceived in the sixties, with several different bridge designs debated, a tunnel considered, and the social, environmental and economic impacts also hotly debated.

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