Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Bridge designer warned of risk in 1979
ROME — The Italian engineer who designed the Genoa bridge that collapsed and killed dozens warned four decades ago that it would require constant maintenance to remove rust given the effects of corrosion from sea air and pollution on the concrete.
RAI state television broadcast excerpts Sunday of the report that the late engineer Riccardo Morandi penned in 1979, 12 years after the bridge bearing his name was inaugurated in Genoa. The Associated Press downloaded the English-language report from an engineering news portal.
At the time of writing, Morandi said there was already a “well-known loss of superficial chemical resistance of the concrete” because of sea air and pollution from a nearby steel plant.
Morandi warned: “Sooner or later, maybe in a few years, it will be necessary to resort to a treatment consisting of the removal of all traces of rust on the exposure of the reinforcements, to fill in the patches.”
A section of the bridge collapsed Aug. 14 during a storm, killing 43 people.
The cause is under investigation, and a team of engineers carried out a preliminary inspection Sunday after rescue crews concluded their search for the missing.
The head of the government team, Roberto Ferrazza, said the survey suggested a series of possible causes.
The Espresso newsmagazine reported Sunday that Ferrazza was one of the engineers who knew about the advanced corrosion underway on the key bridge support that gave way, having attended a Feb. 1 meeting of experts from the Transport Ministry and the company that manages bridge repairs.
Minutes of the meeting, which bear Ferrazza’s signature, recommended that the supports be reinforced. Bidding opened in April for the $23 million public works contract to do the work, according to Italian media.