The start of construction sites for the Bridge over the Strait of Messina is set for the last quarter of 2026. This was deduced from the words of the CEO of the Strait of Messina company Pietro Cucci in a parliamentary hearing. He declared that, by the summer, the “approval process” should be completed, which was restarted after the rejection by the Court of Auditors.
The works should begin in the “subsequent months”, i.e. in the last part of 2026. The CEO also confirmed that the dialogue with the European Commission is continuous, as requested by the Court of Auditors, and that there is no infringement procedure underway regarding the work.
Construction of the bridge will begin in 2026
Cucci’s words are the first indication of a time horizon for the start of work on the bridge since the rejection of the Court of Auditors in October 2025. Since then the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini has renounced, declaring it publicly, to indicate precise dates for the start of the work, after having been denied several times during the last legislature.
Cucci confirmed that the decree of March 11th remodulated the amounts for each year of work, in order to take into account the latest delays in time. The new law also complies with the indications of the accounting judges, and has established all the obligations that the Government will have to comply with in the coming months.
What stage is the approval process at after the rejection by the Court of Auditors
The CEO of the Strait of Messina Company also presented to Parliament a precise report on the progress of the approval process for the Bridge over the Strait. According to what Cucci declared, the company and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport have:
- opinion requested from the Superior Council of Public Works;
- Art’s opinion requested;
- started the definition of the new Program Agreement to be presented to the Court of Auditors;
- maintained open dialogue with the European Commission on the Habitats and Procurement Directives.
Regarding this last point, Cucci specified that the MIT and the Mase have sent the information requested by the Directorate General for the Environment and the Directorate General for the Internal Market of the Commission and underlined that Italy has not been subjected to any infringement procedure due to the Bridge.
How much will the entire Strait Bridge cost?
Finally, the CEO of the Strait of Messina Company spoke about the costs and procurement of the Strait Bridge. He underlined that there is no public-private partnership in the original tenders and that therefore the entire costs will be covered by public funding. Cucci also confirmed the evolution of costs from the original project:
- in 2006, when the work was first planned, the Bridge cost 3.9 billion euros;
- in 2011 it had increased to 6.7 billion euros;
- in 2026 the project will cost 10.5 billion euros.
However, Cucci clarified:
The update of the General Contractor’s fee is the result, almost exclusively, of the application of price indexation clauses also with reference to the strong increase in prices recorded in recent years, which concerned all the infrastructure works in progress and not variations of works which, hypothetically, are relevant for the purposes of the application of Directive 2014/24/EU (art. 72).
The increase in costs is therefore almost exclusively due to inflation in the construction sector over the last 20 years.
