(ANSA) - Palermo, July 28 - One of Italy's top environmentalists has given the Messina Bridge project - jewel in the crown of the government's public-works programme but a bete noire for greens - a resounding thumbs up.
Folco Quilici, a director of documentaries on saving the sea, says in a new book that he "has no intention of joining those who are determined to halt the indispensable progress of communication." Responding to fellow environmentalist and opponent of
the bridge Anna Giordano, Quilici said "I think well-intentioned but short-sighted protesters should look at how things have been built everywhere around the world, even in places which are very sensitive to environmental matters like Japan and Finland."
Quilici's view was the only surprise in a new book arguing in favour of the bridge. The book, edited by economist Pietro Busetta, collects the opinions of 34 people who think the star project of Silvio Berlusconi's infrastructure programme is a very good thing.
They include top economists Giacomo Vaciago and Marco Vitale, two minor trade unionists and a list of usual suspects including Berlusconi ministers, Sicilian politicians and the managers of the company building the bridge. Editor Busetta says in his introduction that "at this point it is a clear duty for the project to be carried forward by the present administration or future ones."
The Berlusconi government is not a hot favourite to stay in office at next year's general election. Two Italian consortia have filed bids for the main bridge job, general contractor. The competing consortia are headed by Italian construction giants Astaldi and Impregilo. The plan for the world's longest bridge has had a few setbacks.
In April the bidding deadline was pushed back to the end of May and an Austrian company pulled out of the race citing legal, geological, technical and financial risks. Work on the bridge is scheduled to begin by early 2006 and end by 2012. It will be 3,690 metres long although the entire length of the construction could reach 5,070 metres. It will replace slow local ferry services and is eventually expected to handle 4,500 cars an hour and 200 trains a day. The bridge will be financed privately and publicly, with the Italian state chipping in up to 40%.
Transport Minister Piero Lunardi says the bridge will bring Sicily closer to Europe and help change its mentality but it has met with opposition from most of the local community. Since the plans were revealed in 1996, the project has been dogged by concerns over its safety and fears of potential Mafia involvement. Environmentalists are also strongly opposed, claiming it will threaten large areas of countryside on both sides of the Messina strait and will be unsafe in an area at high risk of earthquakes.
