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Me lo dice l'architetto: il ponte sarà progettato da lui.

Me lo dice l'architetto: il ponte sarà progettato da lui.
The architect tells me so: the bridge will be designed by him.
From Lesson 203:Passive voice in simple tenses (essere + da)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Me lo dice l'architetto: il ponte sarà progettato da lui.

Why is it sarà progettato instead of just "progetterà"?
This is the passive voice. Instead of saying the architect will design (active), it says the bridge will be designed (passive). To form it in the future tense, you use the future of essere (sarà) plus the past participle of the main verb (progettato). Because the subject (il ponte) is masculine singular, the participle ends in -o.
Why do we use da lui for "by him"?
In Italian passive sentences, the person doing the action (the agent) is introduced by the preposition da. Just like we say "by him" in English, Italian uses da lui.
Why is it Me lo dice rather than Mi lo dice?
When an indirect object pronoun like mi (to me) is combined with a direct object pronoun like lo (it), the i changes to an e. Therefore, mi + lo becomes me lo ("it to me").
Is it normal to put the subject l'architetto at the end of the first clause?
Yes, it is very common in Italian. While you could perfectly well say L'architetto me lo dice, placing the subject after the verb shifts the emphasis to who is speaking: "It's the architect who tells me so."

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