The government’s 13.5-billion-euro project to build a bridge across the Strait of Messina connecting Sicily and the Italian mainland will get final approval on Wednesday, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini said on Monday.

“The approval of the final project to start work on the bridge over the Strait of Messina will be given on Wednesday at 12:30,” Salvini said via video link to an event in the Marche region with Premier Giorgia Meloni.

“It has been talked about since the time of the ancient Romans.

“The last regulations and last signatures over these forty-eight hours will mark a page of history.” Stretto di Messina, the company overseeing the project, said last week that its board of directors had approved the documents that will be put to CIPESS economic planning committee for the final green light for work to begin.

The project includes the construction of the bridge, 40 kilometres of road and rail links, the three new train stations and a business center in Calabria.

If all goes well, the world’s longest suspension bridge will be completed by 2032, Pietro Salini, the CEO of Webuild, which is heading the consortium tasked with building the bride, said recently.

The project, which had been championed by late three-time ex-premier and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, had been set aside for many years due to its high cost, environmental concerns, and fears of mafia infiltration.

But is was revived by Salvini after the centre-right’s victory in the 2022 general election.

In May Italy’s biggest union, the CGIL, wrote to the European Commission asking it to withdraw approval for the government’s plan, citing “serious technical, environmental, regulatory and social critical issues”.