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 conditions (fatigue, density, texture, adherence, anti-rutting etc.). The 'ideal formula' was found after two years of research. The electrical installations of the viaduct are large in proportion to the size of the bridge. There are of high-current cables, of fibre optics, of low-current cables, and 357 telephone sockets; allowing maintenance teams to communicate with each other and with the command post. These are situated on the deck, on the pylons, and on the masts. The pylons, road deck, masts, and cable stays are equipped with a multitude of sensors to enable structural health monitoring. These are designed to detect the