City firms this week attended a presentation co-managed by Allen & Overy on the £4 billion Messina bridge project - which proposes to link Sicily to the Italian mainland - as jostling to secure instructions for the lucrative project began.


Allen & Overy acts for Stretto di Messina, the company overseeing the tender process, and Franco Vigliano, the firm's Milan-based head of projects, has travelled to Tokyo and New York as part of the company's tender advertising.



The bridge, which is scheduled to be ready to use by 2012, would be the longest suspension bridge - at 3.3 kilometres - in the world.



Mr Vigliano said: 'All the larger law firms in Italy will be involved because there will be so many parties. It is such a huge exercise that you need the know-how to do it.'



Other firms attending the London presentation were Hammonds, Shearman & Sterling, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Ashurst and Middleton Potts.



Paul de Cordova, a partner in the projects department of City firm Ashurst, said: 'We are very interested to provide services to prospective bidders from our Italian office and have sent lawyers to the presentations in New York and Tokyo as well. There are clearly a number of Ashurst clients who have also been attending these meetings, so we can see some interesting opportunities.'



He added: 'There is a great deal of legal work done at various different levels - for government, for the general contractor and for stakeholders including the Italian railways and local regional governments.'



The closing date for preliminary validation for companies and consortia pitching for the tenders is 13 July.