Leaning tower still straightening

Pisa – “It’s still straightening,” said engineer Roberto Cela, gazing at the Leaning Tower of Pisa gleaming in the autumn sunshine of northern Italy. “And many years will have to pass before it stops.”

The gravitationally challenged landmark is leaning less after years of ambitious engineering work. Fortunately for the millions of tourists who come there every year, the 57m tower remains beautifully askance. The medieval bell tower, a symbol of the power of the maritime republic of Pisa in the Middle Ages, has leaned to one side ever since building started in 1173.

The tower was closed to the public in 1990 for 11 years over safety fears, as its tilt reached 4.5m from the vertical, threatening to turn it into a pile of rubble.

“We installed a number of tubes underground, on the side that the Tower leans away from,” said Cela, technical director at the OPA, which looks after Pisa’s main monuments. “We removed soil by drilling very carefully. Thanks to this system, we recovered half a degree of lean,” he said.

Pisa University engineering lecturer Nunziante Squeglia said the tower straightened by 41cm until 2001 and four centimetres since then. –