Italy dedicates 'joke' highway

Myth became reality when Italian officials dedicated a highway built at a rate of three miles a year and delayed decades by mob influence investigations.

The 113-mile roadway dedicated by Italian President Silvio Berlusconi cost about $960 million. It opened Tuesday from Palermo to Messina, and ultimately is to connect with Berlin, the Times of London reported.

Opening the roadway after 35 years of work amid allegations of mob siphoning of funds and materials for the project was met with humor by magazine Panorama, which likened the roadway's opening to electing a pope.

Gianfranco Micciché, deputy minister for Economic Affairs and head of the Sicilian branch of Berlusconi's party, said Sicilians came to think of the project as "a joke."

"But myth has become reality," Micciché told the Times of London. "We thought even our children would never live to see it finished."

Only one lane of the road was open in sections Tuesday.

© Copyright 2004 by United Press International