Govt blames bridge owner
GENOA: Rescue workers combed through the rubble of the Morandi Bridge collapse in Genoa yesterday as the death toll climbed to 42 and the Government blamed the bridge’s private owner, demanding resignations and moving to strip its toll concession.
The 50yearold bridge, part of a toll motorway linking the port city of Genoa with southern France, collapsed during torrential rain on Tuesday, sending dozens of vehicles crashing 45m down on to a riverbed, a railway and two warehouses.
As cranes moved in to shift trucksized chunks of broken concrete, hundreds of firefighters searched for survivors, while public shock and grief turned to anger over the state of the 1.2kmlong bridge, completed in 1967 and overhauled two years ago.
The condition of the bridge, and its ability to sustain large increases in both the intensity and weight of traffic over the years, have been a focus of public debate since the collapse, when an 80m span gave way at lunchtime as cars packed with holidaymakers, as well as trucks streamed across it.
Italy’s transport minister Danilo Toninelli said yesterday he had begun a process to fire the bridge’s concession holder, Italian motorway firm Autostrade and demanded its top managers resign.
Toninelli said he would also seek to levy heavy fines, up to ¤150 million ($NZ260 million), against the company.
Autostrade did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Toninelli said the Government would carry out nationwide structural inspections of ageing bridges and tunnels across the country with a view to launching a programme of remedial works if required.
Genoa police put the death toll yesterday at 42, with 16 injured.
The head of Italy’s civil protection agency, Angelo Borrelli, said the victims appeared to all have been in vehicles that plunged from the bridge.
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte visited the city and called the collapse ‘‘a serious wound for Genoa, Liguria and Italy’’.
He told RAI state TV ‘‘it is shocking to see the twisted metal and the bridge collapsed with victims who were extracted’’.
Conte praised the hundreds of rescue workers, saying ‘‘they saved people who fell 45 metres and are now alive and in the hospital’’.
A man who was standing in front of his truck under the bridge when it collapsed called his survival ‘‘a miracle’’.
He told local Italian TV the shockwave sent him flying over 10m into a wall, injuring his shoulder and hip.
‘‘I was in front of the truck, and flew away like everything else. Yes, I think it’s a miracle. I don’t know what to say. I’m out of words.’’
Aerial footage showed trucks and cars stranded on either side of the 80mlong collapsed section of the bridge. One truck was shown just metres away from the broken end of what locals called their ‘‘Brooklyn Bridge’’.
Motorist Alessandro Megna told RAI state radio he had been in a traffic jam and seen the collapse.
‘‘Suddenly the bridge came down with everything it was carrying. It was really an apocalyptic scene; I couldn’t believe my eyes.’’
The CNR civil engineering society is calling for a plan to repair or replace tens of thousands of bridges in Italy that have surpassed their lifespans, having been built in the 1950s and ’60s.