Approved in the Council of Ministers on Decree-law (bottom text) which introduces urgent provisions for the construction of the stable connection between Sicily and Calabria. The measures contained in the decree aim to speed up the restart of the executive planning procedure. The executive project of the work has been set by 31 July 2024.
On 16 March, on the proposal of Premier Meloni and the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Salvini, the Council of Ministers approved, subject to agreements, a decree law aimed at accelerating the restart of the executive planning procedure of the bridge over the Strait.
The twelve-page text intervenes in various areas: corporate structure and governance of the Stretto di Messina Spa company, concession relationship, restart of the planning and design activities of the work, contractual relationships with the general contractor and the project manager consultant, environmental monitoring service, extraordinary commissioner.
With regard to the corporate structure of the in-house company Stretto di Messina spa, the decree provides for the inclusion among the shareholders, (in addition to ANAS and the Regions of Sicily and Calabria) also of RFI spa and 51% of the Ministry of the Economy and of Finance, which exercises the shareholder’s rights in agreement with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. The Ministries will designate two of the five members of the Board of Directors, and more precisely, the President and the Chief Executive Officer of the company, the remaining three members will be designated respectively by the Calabria region, the Sicily region and the Rete Ferrovie Italiane spa. railways on the strait will be the responsibility of RFI Spa.
Supervision of the company’s activities will be entrusted to the Ministry of Infrastructure, which defines the appropriate guidelines and appoints by decree the person in charge of the prevention of corruption and transparency and the person in charge of the administrative functions for the prevention of mafia infiltration attempts. Also the Ministry of Transport will be entrusted with the task of setting up a scientific committee with technical consultancy tasks for the purpose of supervising and directing the technical planning activities.
The concession of the work will have a duration of thirty years (possibly extendable) starting from its entry into operation. With an agreement between the concessionary company and the Ministry of Infrastructure, the time schedule relating to the construction of the work must be agreed, with the clarification, provided for in the decree, that the executive project must be approved by 31 July 2024. The new economic and financial plan of the concession, and in particular the financial coverage of the investment, the proceeds and contributions in favor of the concessionaire, the toll rates for the road crossing of the bridge, the fee for using the railway infrastructure, and the share of RFI spa, they will also be agreed upon in the agreement between the concessionaire and the Ministry of Infrastructure.
The decree then provides for the restart of all the planning and design activities of the work. The environmental monitoring service of the work may be entrusted by the concessionaire to the company Sogesid Spa, the engineering company “in house providing” of the Ministry of’Environment and Energy Security and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. Failure to comply with the deadlines established by the decree will lead to the appointment of an extraordinary commissioner who, in place of the concessionary company, will complete the procedures for assigning and carrying out the work.
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Legislative Decree containing “Urgent provisions for the construction of the stable connection between Sicily and the continent”