Images Show Plan For World's Longest Suspension Bridge

 The final design has been approved for the Messina Strait Bridge, which will be the world's longest suspension bridge.

The bridge will connect Sicily to mainland Italy and is estimated to cost $4.96 billion. It will be two miles long and will run across the Strait of Messina and connect Torre Faro with Villa San Giovanni, on the Italian peninsula.

The CEO of the Strait of Messina Pietro Ciucci said that the news of the final design is "an important step forward for the design and construction of the work."

He added: "The Commission has done an extraordinary job by examining a complex project such as the bridge over the Strait within the legal deadlines.

"Now our commitment focuses on the prescriptions expressed, which will be evaluated with great attention, remembering that the executive design in phases will facilitate their implementation".

The project has been reignited by the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and is being led by Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, but proposals for a bridge in this area date back to the Roman times.

The first detailed plan for the bridge was made in the 19990s under then prime minister Romano Prodi. In 2009 it was announced that construction on the bridge would go ahead, but the project was cancelled in 2013 due to budget constraints.

A decade later, the project was revived by Meloni's government. The construction company WeBuild have long been attached to the project.

WeBuild's Pietro Salini said on March 19 that work on the bridge should begin by the end of 2024, with an opening estimated for 2032.

In October of 2024 the Strait of Messina Company and CINEA (Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency of the European Commission) signed the Grant Agreement for the European co-financing of the executive design costs of the bridge.

The $26 million grant covers around 50 percent of design costs for the bridge.

The bridge promises significant economic impacts, including €2.9 billion injected into the economy, 100,000 jobs, and enhanced trade routes via Sicily.

The bridge will be 1,225 ft. tall and is designed to withstand 7.5-magnitude earthquakes and 180 mph winds and the structure will feature three vehicle lanes and a rail lane in each direction, with a 600-meter navigation channel and 74 meters of clearance for large vessels.

There have been controversies and criticisms of the bridge, with the aerodynamic stability of the bridge a key structural design issue. There have also been issued raised over the risk of earthquakes, strong currents in the strait and concerns over the disruption of bird migration patterns.