(ANSAmed) - ROME -

After waiting for some 130 years, work will begin tomorrow without a ceremony for the bridge over the Strait of Messina. After years of bitter controversy between the majority and opposition, on the bridge's necessity or lack there of, the first construction site will be opened. In the meantime yesterday, according to what was revealed in recent days by the CEO of the company Strait of Messina, Pietro Ciucci (who is also president of the motorway company ANAS), an assembly of the project's partners was held for a foreseen capital increase of 900 million euros.

For the cutting of the ribbon of the bridge's first construction site, the public project that is to symbolise the Berlusconi government, there was to be a ceremony with the Premier, the Minister of Infrastructure, Altero Matteoli, and Pietro Ciucci. The aggression that Berlusconi was victim to and the period of recovery that followed, caused the affair to be cancelled. There will be a ceremony but not until January or February.

In the meantime the project is moving forward and the first, historic site for a project studied during 130 years (a bridge between Calabria and Sicily was first talked about in 1870 when the then Minister of Public Works, Jacini, charged engineer Alfredo Cottrau, a world famous technician, to study the project), will begin tomorrow. The first intervention will involve propaedeutic work, the Cannitello Route, worth 26 million euros. In fact, it will move the Tyrrhenian rail lines some kilometres to the north towards the town to make room for the future construction site of the bridge tower on the Calabrian side. The issue of resources has always been one of the most controversial and discussed. The overall cost of the project has been calculated at 6.3 billion euros, 60% of which has come through the capital market with project financing, while 40% of the requirements is from public financing, including yesterday's 900 million capital increase. The previous capital increase was injected in December 2003 for an amount of 306 million, 214 million of which came from Finteca, 46 from ANAS, 46 from RFI (railway group). Another 1,300 million came from a CIPE allocation (the Inter-ministerial Committee for Economic Planning) in March 2009, converted by the law passed in August. For the 900 capital increase for the Strait of Messina company, 470 million were injected by ANAS as a part of the maxi-amendment included in the Financial Bill; another 117 from RFI from a CIPE allocation on December 17, another 213 million from ANAS during the same CIPE meeting. Another 100 million should arrive from the region of Sicily.

During 2010, construction should begin in Sicily as well and Strait of Messina plans to open the bridge's primary construction site at the beginning of 2011, with the objective of opening the bridge to traffic in January 2017.

(ANSAmed).

I think there were some demonstrations against the bridge last week? at which one of the speakers unfortunately died.