World's Largest Bridge

October 17, 2005 The long-standing project to build the world’s largest bridge between Sicily and mainland Italy has cleared one of its final remaining obstacles and now seems certain to go ahead – the announcement of the winning tender by the Italian construction company Impregilo was made late last week. Impregilo will begin work on the project next year and is expected to finish construction of the world’s largest bridge by 2012. The 3.8 billion euro bridge will cross the Strait of Messina with a single 3300 metre central span, eclipsing the current longest span of the Akashi Kaikyo bridge in Japan (1991 metres) by two thirds again. The bridge’s total length will be 3,666 metres, with a deck of 60.4 metres, six traffic lanes, two service lanes and two railway lines. The bridge’s statistics dwarf all of the World's Greatest Bridges.

Massive political turmoil has surrounded the bridge since it was first conceived in the sixties, with several different bridge designs debated, a tunnel considered, and the social, environmental and economic impacts also hotly debated.

Before committing to the choice of a single span design, the possibility of constructing a smaller suspension bridge was assessed. The choices were a bridge with two towers in relatively shallow waters, or one with a single central tower in deeper waters (150 m). Many unfavourable elements were found with regard to the safety, construction and maintenance of the latter because of the depth in the centre of the Strait, the strong irregular currents, the presence of active faults, greater sensitivity to earthquakes and the dangers deriving from interference with maritime traffic in a navigable channel that is already particularly demanding.

Impregilo S.p.A., Italy’s leading infrastructure constructor, has been awarded the top score on its tender for the construction of the bridge over the Straits of Messina, the contract-awarder announced today.

Impregilo S.p.A. will therefore act as General Contractor for construction of the bridge; it holds a 45% share in the vehicle formed for the project, whose other investors are Sacyr SA (18.70%), Società Italiana Condotte (15%), Cooperativa CMC (13%), Ishikawajma-Harima Heavy Industries Co. (6.30%) and Aci Consorzio Stabile of the Gavio group (2%). The project engineer is Cowi. The General Contractor has arranged a pre-financing for an amount equivalent to 15% of the project with Banca Intesa, CARIGE, Banca Popolare Italiana.

The contract was awarded on a 3.88 billion euro tender, a reduction of 12.33% on the basic bid price of 4.43 billion euro; construction will be completed within a maximum timeframe of 70 months.

The bid was drawn up after extensive analysis over the last 12 months by Impregilo, together

with the engineering and research units of the other companies in the grouping and with Cowi, during which all project components, construction technologies and methods were examined and assessed; based on their analysis, the grouping were able to formulate a cost-effective bid with an outstanding technical content.

The members of the Impregilo grouping boast significant experience in this type of construction project; more specifically, Impregilo built the second suspension bridge over the Bosphorus in Turkey, for a length of 1087 m; Cowi engineered the Storebealt bridge linking Denmark and Sweden, while Japan’s IHI was lead company on the construction of the Akashi Kaikyo, the world’s longest suspension bridge.

“We are very proud to have been awarded this important contract for a project that will represent the state-of-the-art in Europe and worldwide,” said Impregilo S.p.A. Chief Executive Officer Alberto Lina.