Controversy and Concerns
Supporters see the bridge as a huge job-creation scheme and a boost for tourism. However, many also question the priority of the bridge, claiming that if the government concentrated instead on making Sicily's roads more efficient, drivers would be able to reach the coast more quickly at a fraction of the bridge's cost.
Others believe that the bridge is quite unnecessary, since the local economy is already providing for the conversion of a local former NATO airport into a commercial terminal to export vegetables to Northern Europe. Alternatively, a much cheaper revamping of the current structures is claimed to be sufficient (for instance, the ferry lines on the Calabria side are now accessible by trucks only by driving through very narrow streets, which are a tight bottleneck for transport). Another argument against the bridge is the poor state of the transport infrastructure in Sicily, particularly the railroad and Autostrada A20 linking Messina to Palermo, and poor state of the Autostrada A3 on the mainland linking Reggio Calabria to Naples.
There are also concerns about the environmental impact of the bridge, its actual feasibility, and whether it could resist earthquakes, which are not uncommon in the region.
Read more about this topic: Strait Of Messina Bridge
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