«A scientific document published and presented today in the journal Science Direct confirms that the area where the pillars of the Strait Bridge should be built has active seismic faults. The study, carried out by a group of top-level researchers – including Tiziana Sgroia (INGV, Rome 2), Graziella Barberi (INGV, Osservatorio Etneo), Luca Gasperini (CNR-ISMAR), Rob Govers and Nicolai Nijholt (University of Utrecht), Giuseppe Lo Mauro (University of Bari), Marco Ligi, Andrea Artoni, Luigi Torelli and Alina Polonia – unequivocally confirms the danger of the area”. This was stated in a note by Angelo Bonelli, deputy of the Green and Left Alliance and co-spokesperson for Green Europe.
«The Cannitello pylon – continues Bonelli – lies on a certain and active fault, and despite this the project has never been modified. The study also takes into consideration the new mother fault of the 1908 earthquake, which upsets the bridge design fault indicated in the PD 2011 documents by Burraco and Valenzise. This new fault would force the project to be redone, because it makes the current design completely outdated. The reason why it is not updated – he underlines – is simple and disturbing: the project dates back to 28 years ago and, as the Stretto di Messina company itself admitted in its responses to the Court of Auditors, modifying it would mean having to redo it entirely. But they don’t do it, because the real objective is not to build a bridge, but to squander 15 billion euros of public money.”
«This new scientific study – continues Bonelli – represents a further alarm that we will send to the competent authorities, because it confirms the irresponsibility of President Meloni and Minister Salvini, who are putting citizens’ safety at risk in order to carry out a dangerous, old and totally devoid of technical validity project».
The answer from Stretto Spa
«The definitive project of the bridge is updated with the most recent geoseismotectonic studies and the assertion that a ‘scientific document’ claims that the study must be redone is unfounded». This is what the Stretto di Messina company states in a note, which disputes what was declared by the Honorable Angelo Bonelli (Avs).
«The careful reading of the article cited by the Honorable Bonelli, which appeared in the magazine Tectonophysics, not Science Direct, which is an online database of scientific publications – states the Stretto di Messina company – makes no reference to the fact that ‘the Cannitello pylon insists on a certain and active fault’. Even the statement that ‘the study takes into consideration the new mother fault of the 1908 earthquake, which upsets the bridge design fault indicated in the PD 2011 documents’ is also unfounded. Therefore, not only is no ‘redoing the project’ necessary, but the operating model of the Strait of Messina proposed by the authors of the article ends up further confirming the fault model chosen for the Final Project. In fact, the faults shown as Capo Peloro Fault and Ionian Fault, already known in the literature, bind the source fault of the 1908 earthquake chosen by the Final Project to the north and south, making it extremely unlikely that that fault could extend indefinitely to its ends. Therefore, the estimated magnitude of that earthquake, around 7.1, is perfectly compatible with the length estimated for the fault that generated it, around 40-50 km, which is the distance on the map between the two fault systems studied by the authors of the article.”