Start of the Services Conference

Ponte Stretto, from construction sites to the seismic area: 239 additions requested by the Ministry of the Environment

In over 40 pages, the list of updates and detailed studies, from environmental impact assessment (166 requests) to construction sites, from landfills to the seismicity of the area, from Cannitello to the Pantani di Ganzirri. The Ministry of the Environment is requesting a total of 239 new documents. In the meantime, between Calabria and Sicily, two new complaints call for investigations by the public prosecutor's office

by Donata Marrazzo

16 April 2024

Ponte sullo Stretto, l'avvocato degli espropriandi: "Non e' come dicono le notizie"

5' min read

Key points

Mase required additions
Marine Environment Studies
Caminiti, Mase demands protect territories
From prosecutors to Cipess, 45 Messina residents against the work
The bridge over the Strait between two exhibits, actually three
The Bridge is currently only a project idea.
Messina Strait, observations are not critical
Rise in costs and the European directive

5' min read

On the day of the start of the services conference at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport for the preliminary investigation into the Strait Bridge - attended by Stretto di Messina CEO Piero Ciucci, Rup Valerio Mele, Villa San Giovanni mayor Giusy Caminiti and Messina's first citizen Federico Basile - the Ministry of the Environment is asking the concessionaire company for the construction of the stable link between Sicily and Calabria for a list of additional documents, having evidently considered the observations submitted a few days ago by the municipalities to be well-founded.

The additions requested by Mase

In over 40 pages, the coordinator of the Environmental Impact Assessment Subcommittee, Paola Brambilla, formulates precise requests to update the project, for example to verify the compatibility of the interventions with environmental and landscape constraints and protections. The Mase document dwells on the cost-benefit analysis to request a more in-depth description of the social, economic, political and institutional context of the project. It also asks for a description of the work-site system, including the management of excavated earth and rocks, quantifying the surfaces and describing the current state of the sites, their destination and actual use, requesting a summary of the data in clearly readable tables and graphs. A further and articulated integration concerns the seaquake hazard conditions of the Strait of Messina area, leading to the definition of detailed scenarios of potential flooding and related land impact assessments.

Information on the marine environment

Also under the ministry's lens are air quality, the dispersion of pollutants and the marine environment, from Ganzirri to Cannitello, with the request for a detailed analysis of the effects of jetty construction on the land in the site area and studies on the evolution of the coastline. On the Sicilian side, a greater characterisation of the Pantani di Ganzirri area is needed. In Calabria, on the other hand, the hydrogeological risk management project needs to be deepened and more detailed mapping needs to be produced. Special attention is paid to noise pollution, underwater noise, vibrations and electromagnetic fields. Additions are required to protect biodiversity, further assessments on beach nourishment and coastal defence works. Details on protected marine species, checking interference of works. Atmosphere, marine environment, surface and groundwater monitoring.

Mase requests 239 new documents. Caminiti: requests protect territories

The Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security requested 239 supplementary documents from Società Stretto di Messina S.p.A, as part of the evaluation of the bridge project. For the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), 155 integrations were requested. Another 66 integrations were requested for the Assessment of Impacts (Vinca), which verifies the consequences of a project on Natura 2000 sites, the protected sites of EU interest. On the whole, the requests formulated by Mase protect the territories and the wonderful Strait of Messina," commented the mayor of Villa San Giovanni Giusy Caminiti with satisfaction. "Above all, they go in the direction of preventing a redesign in the executive phase, which I consider to be a very dangerous eventuality.

From prosecutors to Cipess, 45 Messina citizens against the work

Meanwhile, the complaint by a group of Messina citizens, 45 lawyers, magistrates, university professors and ordinary citizens ("not adherents of parties or movements, with no labels or flags", they specify), presented to the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rome, Messina and the Court of Auditors, has reached the Cipess: They are asking for an "assessment of the possible occurrence of offences against public faith and property, both in the opinion recently expressed by the scientific committee of the Stretto di Messina company on the supplementary report on the old bridge final project, presented by 'Webuild', and in the consequent resolution of approval by the board of directors of the concessionary company".

The bridge over the Strait between two exhibits, or rather three

Similarly, on the other side, the Calabrian one, the activists of the new committee 'Ti tengo Stretto' Rossella Bulsei, Giuseppe Fedele, with the secretary of the Pd of Villa San Giovanni Vincenzo Musolino and the lawyer Maria Grazia Fedele have presented to the Public Prosecutor's Office of Reggio Calabria a document pointing out anomalies and critical issues on the contractual procedures and the overall feasibility of the work. They dwell, in particular, on the negative environmental impact assessment already expressed in the past, on the geological problems and seismic risk in the Strait of Messina area, on the designer's update report, and on the work's costs.

The two complaints integrate, in fact, the first one signed two months ago by Avs deputy Angelo Bonelli, by Pd secretary Elly Schlein and by Nicola Fratoianni, secretary of Sinistra Italia, presented to the Rome public prosecutor's office. Prosecutor Alessia Natale, who deals with crimes against the public administration, has opened an investigation into the procedures for the design and construction of the stable link between Calabria and Sicily.

The Bridge is currently only a project idea

The Messina complaint revolves in particular around the 68 recommendations of the scientific committee to the bridge project: 'When the committee gives a positive opinion on the designer's report supplementing the final project of the work,' say the signatories of the complaint, 'it declares it approvable. It basically says to its interlocutor, the board of directors of Stretto di Messina, you can approve it, even if we recommend further work in view of the executive project. But a project that does not resolve the fundamental doubt as to whether the work can really be built, with what components and, therefore, at what real cost, is simply a project idea'.

The document also deals with even more sensitive issues, such as 'the possibility of concluding additional acts shortly, already after the approval of the CIPESS and independent of the recommendations of the scientific committee, that could bring back to life the contracts that fell through in 2012'.

Messina Strait, observations are not critical

But Stretto di Messina has already stated that: "The bridge project has its feasibility fundamentals, but it can be optimised, benefiting from any evolution, in terms of materials and techniques, even during the construction phase," explained the company's managing director Pietro Ciucci, during the presentation of the project at Villa San Giovanni. He also added, regarding the recommendations of the technical-scientific committee, that "they do not represent criticalities, they are not prescriptions, but are opportunities for improvement, for optimisation of the project. Shared activities that will be carried out, before and during the drafting of the executive project. And then everything does not end with the executive project either, because this is a work that will take seven years to complete and we will not stop, during this period, to study the issues of wind, earthquake, or all the technological innovations that there may be in the future'.

Rise in costs and the European Directive

The petition filed with the Reggio Calabria public prosecutor's office also focuses on the designer's report: 'It is not really an update report, for example, it does not complete the tests on the bridge's windtightness,' the petitioners insist, 'nor does it provide for seismic micro-zoning, so much so that the same technical-scientific committee has issued a favourable opinion on the project with no less than 68 observations and/or recommendations, which, if read carefully, make this opinion a sort of favourable opinion 'provided that''.

Finally, reference is made to the 'resumption of the contractual relationship with Eurolink, which, without a tender, had to comply with the limit of the European directive with an increase in costs of no more than 50 per cent, as repeatedly reiterated by Anac'.

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