Strait of Messina Bridge have made the span more than 60% longer than the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan—the largest suspension bridge in the world at . Plans called for four traffic lanes (two driving lanes and one emergency lane in each direction), two railway tracks and two pedestrian lanes. In order to provide a minimum vertical clearance for navigation of , the height of the two towers was to be . This would have been taller than the Millau Viaduct in France (currently the tallest bridge in the world at ). The bridge's suspension system would have relied on two pairs of steel cables,
Millau Viaduct public interest to solicit design approaches for a competition. In July 1996 the jury decided in favour of a cable-stayed design with multiple spans, as proposed by the Sogelerg consortium led by Michel Virlogeux and Norman Foster. The decision to proceed by grant of contract was made in May 1998; then in June 2000, the contest for the construction contract was launched, open to four consortia. In March 2001, Eiffage established the subsidiary "Compagnie Eiffage du Viaduc de Millau" (CEVM), and was declared winner of the contest and awarded the prime contract in August. In initial studies, four potential options