ROME, 14 October 2005 — “Politicians,” Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev once said, “are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.” Critics of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi view the construction of a bridge linking the island of Sicily to the mainland as an expensive propaganda coup, a white elephant that risks damaging the environment and feeding the local Mafia while failing to address the region’s chronic problems.

His supporters trumpet it as a “historic” achievement, a dream come true after decades of idle talk that will do wonders for the local economy and Italy’s image abroad. Gargantuan construction projects are traditionally leaden with controversy, all the more so in a country like Italy, where fierce debate is a national pastime.

But whatever one’s opinion on the subject, grandiose plans to construct the world’s largest suspension bridge have moved decisively closer to reality this week with the awarding of a contract to build a 3.7-kilometer-long road-and-rail link over the Messina Strait. The bridge is to be built by an international consortium led by Impregilo, Italy’s largest engineering company.

Flanked by Japanese giant Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries and Spain’s Sacyr Vallehermoso, Impregilo beat the competition of a rival syndicate led by Italy’s Astaldi with an offer of 3.88 billion euros ($4.6 billion). The figure, 550 million euros lower than the government had expected, is jaw-dropping and makes it by far the biggest contract in Italian history.

Construction is due to begin in 2006 and end in 2012. When completed, this feat of engineering will be more than twice longer than the Storebelt Bridge in Denmark, at 1.6 kilometers Europe’s longest suspension bridge, and will easily outshine Japan’s 1.99-kilometer-long Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Kobe, currently the longest of its kind in the world.

It will carry a six-lane highway and two tracks for a high-speed railway line, reducing crossing times by one hour by road and two hours by rail. It currently takes about 20 minutes to cross the strait by ferry. Its two concrete towers are expected to measure 382.6 meters in height, making them about 60 meters taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

First conceived during Roman times and a pet project of wartime fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, the bridge is considered by the European Union Commission an “absolute priority.”

Its completion will allow European goods and people to travel by road uninterrupted from Syracuse to Helsinki. “Finally everyone will realize that we weren’t joking when we promised to build the bridge over the Messina Strait,” Italian Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi said.

And though government accountants insist there is no turning back, strong reservations remain. Apart from the enormous costs that will weigh down on Italians at a time of economic hardship, critics point to the uselessness of building a bridge in an area plagued by poverty and lack of adequate infrastructures.

For instance, they say the government should focus instead on completing a badly needed motorway linking the Sicilian capital Palermo to Messina that still hasn’t been finished, some 30 years after the first stone was laid. According to Roberto Della Seta of the environmental group Legambiente, the government should attempt to modernize the island’s outdated railway lines instead.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the bridge will interfere with one of the three most important migratory routes in Europe and cause serious damages to Mediterranean sea fauna.

Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio of the opposition Green party argues that the bridge represents “a colossal business opportunity for organized crime networks.”