Never has been as debated as the bridge over the Strait of Messina, designed as a connection between Messina, Sicily and Villa San Giovanni, in Calabria. Without entering the political debate, we will tell you this work from point of view engineering.
In this video you will see an unprecedented 3D reconstruction of the bridge over the Strait, on the basis of projects original.
We will start first by understanding what a suspension bridgethen analyze the part which will make up the future bridge over the Strait.
What kind of bridge will it be? The original project
The final project of the bridge over the Strait of Messina has been approved. It is a stage of a long process: it dates back to 1969 The first international competition organized by the Italian Ministry of Public Works, with the aim of collecting ideas for a possible bridge project.
The 2011 Technical Project was relaunched in 2023 by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, and the bill For the realization he obtained the green light from the President of the Republic and the Parliament.
We then resumed the approved project to show you a 3D reconstruction of the work, which will be the Longer suspended bridge in the world.
What is meant by suspended bridge? It means, in short, that there are no pylons or pillars under the deck. There are only two towers, at the ends, from which a system of cables that support the deck starts.
How will the bridge over the Strait of Messina? The structure
In the video you can see in detail the Four essential parts which constitute the bridge: the towers With the foundations (in architecture and engineering the correct term is foundations, not a foundation), the suspension system, the deck he is anchor blocks.
The towers
The towersconsisting of two 399 meters high legs, have the task of supporting all the weight. Will be placed not at sea, but on the mainland, near the locations of Ganzirri (me) And Punta piece (RC)in the narrowest section of separation between Sicily and the peninsula. The legs of the towers rest on concrete foundations in the shape of a 33 m high trunk.
The suspension system
The suspension system Instead it includes the cables that connect the towers to the structures that hold the road. In total, there are four cableseach of which is composed of 349 ropeseach in turn formed by 127 steel wires. Consequently, each cable is connected by Ben 44,323 total steel wires.
The deck
THEimpalcate It is the suspended part of the bridge, which will be the longest in the world. Between the two towers, who are one in Calabria and one in Sicily there is a space, called lightwhich in this bridge is well 3,300 m. This distance would mark the world record of free light, which today belongs to Cannakale Bridge, on the Dardanelli Strait.
As you will see in the video, there will be two motorway carriageways and, in the center, two tracks for railway circulation.
The anchor blocks
To the anchor blocks The suspension cables will be set. The function of these blocks is counteract main cables. They are therefore an essential component, without which the bridge could not stand up.
The construction phases
But how do you build a bridge of such dimensions? In the video you will see anunpublished illustration of the main stages of the works.
To summarize, we will start from the positioning of the towers on the mainland, and then move on to the assembly of the suspension system and then of the deck. Do you think that the deck is mounted starting from the center of the span: one bargeunder the bridge, is surmounted by a crane which will raise the various sections of the deck.
In the video you will see this fascinating and complicated construction system.
