The new 3,666 meters crossing will span the narrow Strait of Messina and link Sicily to the mainland. Once complete, the bridge will have a 3,300 meter main span and will serve as one of Italy’s most important transportation facilities.  The landmark bridge is designed to carry two heavy railroad tracks, and six lanes of traffic, all while being able to withstand an earthquake of 7.1 magnitude on the Richter scale and a wind speed over 216 kilometers/hr.

 The bridge superstructure, innovative and named as the third generation Messina style, comprises three separate orthotropic deck steel box girders, one for each of the Sicily and Italy bound roadways and one for the railway. The three box girders are connected by transverse steel box cross girders spaced at 30 m. The superstructure is supported by pairs of hanger cables connected to each cross beam end. The hangers are connected to pairs of main cables on each side of the bridge (four main cables), with each main cable having a diameter of 1.26 m. The main cables are anchored at each bridge end in massive reinforced concrete anchor blocks. The main cables are supported by two steel main towers, each with a height of 399 m above mean sea level. The main towers are founded on reinforced and post-tensioned concrete footings, which are supported on underlying rock formations.

Parsons is the Program Management Consultant (PMC) for the project. As part of the PMC scope of work, Parsons performed an independent design check and verification, and performed independent wind tunnel testing of both the superstructure and towers.

A Vice President at Parsons, Kenneth Serzan has more than 30 years of experience providing engineering and design services for long-span bridge projects throughout the world, including suspension, arch and cable stayed bridges. Mr. Serzan has recently served as the Bridge Manager for the independent design check of the Messina Straits Bridge and was the Technical Director for the design and construction of the two newest suspension bridges in the western hemisphere, the Carquinez Strait Bridge in California and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state. In addition, Mr. Serzan has been the project manager for the rehabilitation/reconstruction of numerous iconic suspension bridges, including the Brooklyn, Verrazano Narrows, George Washington and Tagus River bridges and was involved with the design of two bridges that have been awarded the Outstanding Civil Engineering Award by the ASCE, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge (USA) and Rion-Antirion Bridge (Greece).