NEW BRIDGE WARNINGS Hundreds more could be at risk, experts warn Govt accuses previous administrations of turning a blind eye

Up to 300 bridges, viaducts and tunnels in Italy are at risk of structural failure, experts warned yesterday, as the death toll from the collapse of a bridge in Genoa rose to 39, including three children.

There were fears that the number of fatalities could rise further.

Matteo Salvini, Italy’s Interior Minister, said it was hard to tell how many people were still unaccounted for simply because they were on holiday or “under the rubble” of the 80m section of the Morandi Bridge which plunged around 45m.

Authorities, who are trying to determine what caused the collapse, are worried about the stability of remaining large sections of the bridge and ordered a wider evacuation, forcing about 630 people from nearby apartments, some practically in the shadow of the elevated highway.

The collapse occurred on Tuesday, the eve of Italy's biggest summer holiday, when traffic was particularly busy on the 51-year-old span that links two highways — one leading to France, the other to Milan — from this northwestern port city.

Around 70 per cent of Italy’s 15,000 motorway bridges and tunnels are more than 40 years old, many of them built during the postwar boom but now carrying far more traffic than they were designed for.

Lack of investment, poor maintenance and, in some cases, the involvement of mafia-run building companies that use poor quality concrete to increase profits, could all contribute to disasters like the one in Genoa.

“They have problems that, if not addressed in time, could potentially lead to structural failures,” a leading structural engineer said.

He told La Repubblica newspaper: “The problem is not so much knowing which structures are at risk, but having the money to finance repairs and maintenance.”

Among the structures at risk was Rome’s Magliana Bridge, between the city centre and the capital’s busiest airport, Fiumicino, he said.

Italy’s CNR civil engineering society called for a “Marshall Plan” to repair or replace tens of thousands of Italian bridges and viaducts built in the post-war period.

As investigators began to study what may have caused 80m-long