Hundreds of structures at risk
Up to 300 bridges, viaducts and tunnels in Italy are at risk of structural failure, experts warned, 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’’.
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 post-war 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 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,’’ said the expert. Among the structures at risk was the Magliana Bridge in Rome, 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 a 198m-long portion of the raised motorway in Genoa to collapse, sending around 35 cars and several trucks plummeting to the ground, Italy’s populist government blamed the private company that managed it.
Luigi Di Maio, deputy prime minister and the leader of the Five Star Movement, accused Autostrade per l’Italia of chasing profits at the expense of public safety. ‘‘Instead of investing money for maintenance, they divide the profits and that is why the bridge falls,’’ he said.
Autostrade, which operates nearly 3200km of Italian motorways, is controlled by the Benetton group through its holding company, Atlantia.
Di Maio accused previous Italian governments of turning a blind eye to the upkeep of the country’s motorways because of political contributions.
‘‘For the first time there is a government that does not take money from Benetton. Autostrade was protected by previous governments,’’ he said.
‘‘If the bridge was dangerous, then they should have closed it.’’
‘‘The problem is not so much knowing which structures are at risk but having the money to finance repairs and maintenance.’’
Leading structural engineer