Strait of Messina: from investments to tolls, here are all the numbers of the bridge

The traffic estimates are the basis for the toll revenue estimates. Starting with one figure: the revenue from the project in the operational phase is expected to be 162.8 million in 2033 and 336.4 million in 2062. The latter figure will be made up of 300.4 million in toll revenues for the road crossing and the remainder from railway fee revenues and the territorial continuity contribution currently received by Rfi (Rete ferroviaria italiana) for Sicily.

The operating tariffs indicated in the Pef under approval - notes the Dipe in its note - provide for a discount compared to current levels of about 80% in the case of motorbikes and cars, and 20% for vans and trucks. In detail, user tariffs (per route, VAT included at 2024 values) are envisaged for motorbikes at €1.79; for cars at €3.93 (one-day return), €4.49 (return within three days) or €7.14 (return within 90 days); for local public transport buses at €7.2; for long-distance buses at €33.4. As for goods, they range from EUR 45.7 per route for vans to EUR 102.4 for lorries. In the calculations there is also the estimate, limited to 2033, of transits: in total just over 4.5 million vehicles of which almost 2.3 million are cars and just under 1 million trucks.

The bridge, which will have a design life of 200 years, will have a central span length of 3,300 metres, compared to an overall length of 3,666 metres. The width of the deck will amount to 60.4 metres, the height of the towers will be 399 metres. Two pairs of cables are planned for the suspension system, with a total length of 5,320 metres and a diameter of 1.26 metres, and anchoring blocks amounting to 533,000 square metres. The central navigable channel for the transit of large ships will be 65 metres high.

The project consists of two lanes plus one emergency lane for road traffic, in each direction, with a total capacity of 6,000 vehicles/hour. Two railway tracks and pavements are added, for an infrastructure capacity of 200 trains/day. Also included are the road and rail connection works on the Calabrian and Sicilian sides (a total of 20.3 km of road links and 20.2 km of rail links), mostly in tunnels, to ensure the connection to the new route of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway and the future Naples-Reggio Calabria high-speed section, on the one hand, and to the Messina-Catania and Messina-Palermo motorway sections on the other.

The total amount of the investment is calculated at EUR 13.532 billion. Of this, EUR 10.508 billion relates to the awarding of the contract to the general contractor, which in turn is divided between EUR 9.242 billion of works and EUR 1.266 billion of amounts not subject to rebate, such as, for example, safety costs (EUR 203.3 million), engineering services and monitoring activities (EUR 304.8 million), and works and compensatory measures for the territorial and social impact (EUR 267 million). Then there are almost 3 billion of other costs (of which 1.9 billion appear as sums at the contractor's disposal), including specialised works management activities, environmental monitoring, reclamation of areas from polluting materials, anti-sabotage inspection devices, surveillance activities and archaeological surveys, and charges for the legality protocol.

The annual operating costs over the period 2033-2062 are estimated at about EUR 80 million, of which about EUR 6 million for ordinary maintenance of the works, about EUR 24 million for personnel costs, and EUR 50 million for other costs. Then there is the chapter on extraordinary maintenance, estimated at EUR 1.64 billion between 2034 and 2060: an estimate that - the Pef Report specifies - was made in light of the experience of international operators that manage the maintenance of large suspension bridges in Denmark, Turkey and Japan. In particular, the complete resurfacing of the pavements every 5 years, the replacement of 20% of the road barriers every 15 years, the resurfacing of 50% of the paintwork every 15 years, and the replacement of the mechanical systems and installations also every 15 years is envisaged. The total value of the investment, including extraordinary maintenance, amounts in the documentation examined by Dipe and Cipess to just over EUR 15.3 billion, to which must be added the net investment in revertible assets of the Stretto di Messina company for EUR 189.7 million.

More than half of the project's financial coverage - a total of EUR 13.532 billion - was earmarked in the 2024 budget law, which was supplemented the following year (EUR 6.962 billion). A significant share, however, comes from the Development and Cohesion Fund, the large national fund for cohesion policies and the reduction of territorial disparities, 80% of which is earmarked for the South with the aim of financing capital expenditure for interventions that must have the character of being additional to ordinary State expenditure. From the FSC, in particular, €4.6 billion is drawn for the bridge in the amount of €4.6 billion for the central government's share of the 2021-2027 programming and €1.6 billion for the share of the Regions of Sicily and Calabria, also 2021-27. A further 370 million of coverage instead refers to the capital increase of Stretto di Messina spa reserved to the Ministry of the Economy and realised on 27 December 2023.

Out of these calculations is the expenditure, totalling 500 million euro, already authorised by the 2024 Budget Law for related works, as identified by CIPESS on the basis of the proposals forwarded by Salvini's ministry at the outcome of the Services Conference, but not included in the decisions submitted to the Committee at the beginning of August. It is now expected that this list of works, with the release of the related 500 million, will also arrive on the table of the CIPESS.