Ponte Sullo Stretto, in Calabria and Sicily expected surge in the property market: the business of residences for offices and beds

Three hundred buildings in Sicily and 150 in Calabria, including entire apartment blocks, for a total of about 4 thousand people affected. Over 3.7 million square metres of land, with various destinations, wiped out on both sides. In between there is the sea.

The expropriations for the construction of the Strait Bridge are tormenting the communities of Villa San Giovanni and Messina. In the two cities affected by the work, entire neighbourhoods, high-density residential, commercial and tourist areas are being blown up: many citizens speak of it as an urban planning disaster. And the mayors - Giusy Caminiti in Villa San Giovanni and Federico Basile in Messina - are also living on their toes, waiting for their cities to change shape.

Villa San Giovanni will be cut in two, from the sea to the mountain, between Cannitello and Piale: four tunnels will be dug at the height of the motorway. A stretch of seafront, 400 metres from the small church of Santa Maria del Cannitello to the Sanctuary of Maria Santissima delle Grazie di Pezzo, will be sucked up by the bridge abutment. The mayor of the Calabrian municipality, in order to protect the residents affected by the expropriation, makes a clear request to the Stretto di Messina company: 'Provide for the construction of semi-detached houses in a suitable area. Since the bridge inhibits some building zones,' says Caminiti, 'the building could be shifted to other land, keeping our municipality's land consumption at zero'.

Messina will be dismembered from north to south, from Torre Faro to Contesse. The Annunziata area, which starts from the sea and arrives at the Giostra motorway junction, will be plundered by expropriations and subdivisions. "We will have patchy construction areas," Basile announces, with some concern, "and in many cases work on the bridge will be added to others already underway. This means that the Strait Bridge will conform the entire city. And it also means that I must first and foremost protect the territory and in particular the areas at hydrogeological risk. And take care of those who will be expropriated. The problem is social. We have a great building heritage, we will ask for expropriations in zones'.

Thus, tension grows on the fragile territories of the Ponte sullo Stretto. The provision of compensation does not placate the expropriated people, who are actually organising themselves, protesting and joining the nopontists. Those who find themselves on the list of property affected by subjugation' for public services are also joining in: a sort of limbo for properties that stand close to the construction sites. In many cases, owners will still have to leave their homes for safety reasons, planning to return once the work is finished.