Longer than the Golden Gate [New Norwegian bridge to be built]
Aftenpost.com | March 1, 2006 | by Gunnar Magnus and Halvor Hegtun
Posted on 03/01/2006 7:46:18 PM EST by aculeus
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1588155/posts
Bridging the Strait of MessinaAmid popular pleas to avoid assigning construction contracts to Mafia-controlled companies (a problem prevalent throughout southern Italy but worse in Sicily and Calabria), politicians promised strict review procedures to ensure that corruption might be avoided. Among northern firms bidding on such contracts, simple bribes ("tangenti") are more frequent than organised crime per se.
by Carlo Trabia
Best of Sicily Magazine
Only since the 1980s has the bridge proposal been studied seriously. Apart from endemic political corruption, potential special interests and plain indifference, environmental factors have been cited as a reason for not building the bridge. However, environmentalists rarely explain precisely how a bridge would, in itself, threaten wildlife or the coastline moreso than the current maritime traffic, and reasonably reliable environmental studies indicate that the bridge will cause no undue damage. The possibility of earthquakes is sometimes mentioned, but San Francisco's bridge has thus far withstood seismic events and poses no obvious environmental threat. On the contrary, it is well integrated into the marine and coastal environments.
Technology semi-ping.
