Italian city ready to rise back despite monumental bridge collapse

Three Days after the collapse of a major bridge that killed dozens in the northwest Italian city of Genoa, authorities were mulling two solutions to try to minimize the effects of the disaster in the short and medium term. On the one hand, alternative routes are needed to divert heavy vehicles headed to port from passenger traffic. On the other hand, the city plans to build a new viaduct in the place of the fallen one in two years.

On Tuesday, the mid-section of a 1,182-meter viaduct called Morandi Bridge – linking Genoa west and east, and leading to two major highways – suddenly collapsed, sending dozens of cars and trucks falling some 45 meters to the ground.

The bridge collapse has severely maimed the city’s complex viability system, depriving it from a major artery toward port areas.

“In the short term, we could have a drop up to 10 percent of the goods volume annually exchanged in the two port basins of Genoa,” Paolo Signorini, chairman of the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority, told Xinhua.

The Authority jointly manages the ports of Genoa, Savona and Vado in the Liguria region.

“We might estimate a loss up to 10 percent of the value added taxes and excises annually produced by our port system, which amounted to some 6 billion euros ($6.8 billion) in latest years,” Signorini said.

Yet, local authorities stressed the city was “not on its knees,” and would be able to react.

“Beyond the psychological blow to our people, we must focus on one thought: rising again after such tragedies is possible,” Genoa mayor Marco Bucci stressed in an interview with Xinhua. “If we are able to open the two alternative routes we are thinking of – using private roads – we will have six lanes instead.”

The author is a writer with the Xinhua News Agency. The article first appeared in Xinhua. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn