<p>The Messina Strait Bridge is a bold and debated engineering project aimed at linking Sicily with Italy mainland across one of the Mediterranean’s most busy and strategic straits. An environmental comprehensive study has been conducted for estimating environmental costs associated with the bridge’s construction and suggesting management strategies for transportation phases to achieve environmental recovery. The findings serve as a foundation for future research to explore alternative scenarios based on evolving transportation systems and needs. The distinction between the bridge and its related works, such as access roads, railways, tunnels, and stations, is emphasized to provide specific environmental data, facilitating comparison with similar structures. The authors have conducted a Life Cycle Assessment of the bridge and its associated infrastructure, focusing on two critical phases: construction and use and maintenance. Details of the methods and of the data are reported to promote the reproducibility of the results and the definition of new scenarios by the scientific community. The model can also be easily exported to other straits around the world, even in different geographical and operational configurations.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>