In addition to being safer, the new Baltimore bridge must be able to serve as a symbol of the city's rebirth. This is how Pietro Salini, CEO of the Webuild group, described in an interview with the Baltimore Sun newspaper his preliminary proposal for a new bridge, which was sent to the Maryland government immediately following the March 26 accident in which the Francis Scott Key Bridge was destroyed by a merchant ship, killing six people. What happened, Salini said, drawing a parallel to the collapse of the Morandi bridge in Genoa, which Webuild rebuilt in just 15 months, "is more than just an infrastructural collapse. It's like having a scar in the flesh of the people, or the inhabitants". In an interview with the Sun, Salini emphasized the history of his company, which has built 630 miles of bridges and viaducts over the last century and recalled that Webuild is designated for the planning and building of the Bridge over the Strait of Messina, which, if built, would be "the longest suspension bridge in the world". According to local government estimates, the new Baltimore Bridge will cost between $1.7 and $1.9 billion and is scheduled to be completed by October 15, 2028. Salini stated that Webuild could meet the deadline and potentially provide "substantial time savings".
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