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Department of Civil Engineering
CIVL 3121 - Interesting Information about Structures
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Monster Bridge for Italy? 

by Chris Carroll


Ancient travelers crossing the turbulent waters that separate Sicily from mainland Italy encountered such frequent hazards that storytellers invented sea monsters to help people make sense of it all. 

Though little danger exists in today's 30-minute ferry ride across the Strait of Messina, planners eager to speed up the crossing imagine a new kind of colossus. Work is scheduled to begin in 2005 on the world's largest suspension bridge-the first permanent link between Sicily and the Italian mainland. When finished in 2011 , the main span of 2.05 miles (suspension small bridges are ranked by length of the main span) would nearly double that of the current record holder in Japan, while San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge would be dwarfed (comparison shown above). 

But environmentalists point to a real-life bogey in the strait: an underwater fault that caused a 1908 quake, killing as many as 100,000 people in Messina. An engineering study showed that the bridge would likely survive another magnitude 7.1 quake. But as the project moves through government agencies toward construction, opponents say the risks are too great and the benefits too to justify the 5.5-billion-dollar price tag.

 


This website was originally developed by Charles Camp for CIVL 3121.
This site is maintained by the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Memphis.
Your comments and questions are welcomed.

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Department of Civil Engineering | 104 Engineering Science Bldg | Memphis, TN 38152 | Phone: 901/678-2746 | Fax: 901/678-3026 | Last updated: 08/22/2023