Pylons of Messina

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The former electricity pylon on the Sicilian site of Messina Strait ("Torre Faro")
The former electricity pylon on the Sicilian site of Messina Strait ("Torre Faro")

The Pylons of Messina are the pylons of the former overhead 220 kV powerline between Rizziconi substation (Calabria) and Sorgente substation (Sicily) used for crossing Strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily.

The pylons are two 232 metre high freestanding steel towers, one on Sicily and the other on the Italian mainland. Each pylon stands on a 8 metre tall cross-shaped basement and is equipped with a crossbar or 4 conductors in a height of 212 metres. The two remaining conductors were fixed under the tops, which carried also the ground conductors. In contrast to usual practice, the corners of the pylons are arranged diagonally along the direction of the course of the line. The pylons of Messina were the model for the pylons of Elbe Crossing 1 in Germany and were until the completion of Elbe Crossing 2, the tallest pylons of the world.

After their completion, the period of the oscillation of the structures and their maximum deflections were determined in a very unusual manner: engineers mounted three rockets with a thrust of 9800 kilonewtons on the tops of the pylons and ignited them [1].

Because the overhead power line over the Strait of Messina has a very large span width (more then 3 kilometres), and because of the maritime traffic in the strait below, the conductors must have a great minimum height above ground, and had to be constructed to have great tensile strength. This required the use of steel cables as conductors even though steel has the disadvantage of less electrical conductivity than normal overhead power lines. The danger of oscillations caused by wind did not allow the usage of bundled conductors. Thus, the original overhead line across the strait did not meet modern operational standards and the entire power line was replaced in 1994 by a submarine cable.

The now-unused pylons remain, with protected status as historical monuments and are used for meteoroligal measurements, high altitude rescue training and telecommunication.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Turmbauwerke, Bauverlag GmbH, Wiesbaden, 1966

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

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