Strait of Messina spa is the company commissioned by the State to build the bridge over the Strait of the same name, costing, for now, 14.5 billion. After years of legal limbo, the Meloni government and the minister responsible for the matter, Matteo Salvini, have resurrected it together with the old bridge project. Since its reactivation, the company led by the man of the bridge, Pietro Ciucci, is more alive than ever with thriving expenses and growing staff: 21 managers, 66 managers and 27 employees for a total of 114 employees.
How Stretto di Messina spa has grown: costs to 2026
For two years, Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini has been predicting and promising the start of work on the bridge. The construction sites are not yet visible, but in the Strait, even if figuratively, personnel and money travel in quantity. The comparison with the past gives an idea of how costs have grown over time: in 2023, the year of the rebirth of the bridge project, in the period June-December the management expenditure for the Strait of Messina stopped at around 1.2 million euros for 17 managers. They were supported by 35 managers and 8 employees, for a total of 60 employees and a salary that was just over 2.5 million euros.
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In 2025, the first full year of full operation, the cost reported for the 19 managers on staff amounted to 4.5 million euros, with the employee number reaching 84 units for approximately 9 million euros of expenditure. Today, in May 2026, the fully operational workforce has 21 managers and overall spending for this area has exceeded 6 million euros per year. The 66 managers and 27 employees bring the staff to 114 units at a cost of 11.5 million euros: an increase of 33 percent compared to the previous year.
Who are the bridge managers: the names
At the end of 2025 there were 23 managers, but Lorenzo Alzati and Gioacchino Lucangeli – the latter on secondment from Anas – have finished their roles worth respectively 180,000 and 171,660 euros per year. 21 remain. Two of them exceed the public salary ceiling of 311.00. euro: I am Andrea Parrella, former Leonardo and here responsible for risk management, legal affairs and compliance who receives 357,890 euros, and Francesco Parlato (319,450 euros) responsible for prevention. Exceeding the ceiling is made possible by the “Asset Decree” launched by the government in August 2023 which established the exemption from the ceiling for employees of the Strait of Messina.
Below are the names of all the managers of the Stretto di Messina company with their compensation:
- Andrea Parrella (€357,890)
- Francesco Parlato (€319,450)
- Eugenio Fedeli (€268,917)
- Valerio Mele (€265,457)
- Edgardo Greco (€239,425)
- Ilaria Maria Coppa (€199,576)
- Maria Francesca Mattei (€197,062.50)
- Stefano Caroselli (€191,760.25)
- Achille Devitofranceschi (€167,661.04)
- Lorenzo Falciai (€166,550.46)
- Andrea Stefanoni (€161,168.21)
- Alessandro Micheli (€154,825.36)
- Agnese Leofreddi (€149,502.02)
- Omar Mandosi (€122,706.47)
- Marco Cerullo (€110,080)
- Pietro La Barbera (€101,111.08)
- Antonella Sannicandro (€92,630)
- Giorgio Micolitti (€90,040)
- Alberto Bitossi (€57,500)
- Raffaele Celia (€53,888)
- Giorgio Zavadini (€212,342.41)
The Strait of Messina itself had explained that the exemption from the salary cap “responds to the need to ensure that the company has the right professionalism for the construction of a work such as the bridge over the Strait of Messina and, therefore, to be able to dialogue, negotiate and control all the Italian and international subjects involved in the construction who can count on first level organisations”.
The new board of directors: Ciucci is still the man on the bridge
To the managers we must add the board of directors. In April 2026, the cost of the Strait of Messina board of directors amounted to 412,000 euros per year. On 29 April 2026, the shareholders’ meeting inaugurated the new three-year period of appointments with handovers: the manager Maurizio Basile took over from Giuseppe Recchi as president (a role which until now absorbed 97,000 euros between fixed quota and delegations), while a new entry (Marco Stasi) replaced Giacomo Saccomanno, alongside the reconfirmed directors Nicotra and Mariani.
Bridge over the Strait, what happens if it is not done: how much are the penalties
Pietro Ciucci, managing director, is still a man of the bridge with “all the powers for ordinary and extraordinary management” and maintains a basic nominal compensation of 240,000 euros. The asset decree, in addition to having introduced the exception to the salary limits, also allowed the CEO to add his company compensation to the pension accrued during his long years at Anas. It can be seen from his latest tax return: the 296,000 euros of compensation from the CEO (basic pay plus any bonuses) are added to 355,568 euros of pension treatment.
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