Hundreds of Italian bridges and tunnels at risk of collapse
Construction experts warn over lack of investment in repairing post-war transport infrastructure
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.
Political leaders took aim at the EU. Mr Salvini said “European fiscal constraints” had prevented Italy from making major infrastructure repairs.
Italy’s CNR civil engineering society called for a “Marshall Plan” to repair or replace tens of thousands of bridges and viaducts built in the post-war period.
As investigators began to study what may have caused a 260ft-long portion of the raised motorway in Genoa to collapse, sending around 35 cars and several lorries 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 2,000 miles of Italian motorways, is controlled by the Benetton group through its holding company Atlantia.
Mr Di Maio accused previous governments of turning a blind eye to the upkeep of the country’s motorways be- cause 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 government said it wanted to revoke the contract awarded to Autostrade and hit the company with a massive fine of €150million.
Autostrade insisted that the bridge had been “constantly monitored” and rejected accusations that it had not invested enough in maintenance.
“In the last five years the company’s investment in the security, maintenance and strengthening of the network has been over €1billion a year,” it said.
As the coalition, which consists of Five Star and the hard-right League party, called for heads to roll, it emerged that in 2013 Beppe Grillo, the founder of Five Star, had opposed plans to build a new motorway that would have alleviated pressure on the Morandi bridge.
Mr Grillo dismissed warnings that the bridge could collapse as “a fairy tale” on his widely read blog.
When the plans for the new motorway were blocked, one leading industrialist predicted that the Genoa bridge would fail.
“When, in 10 years’ time, the Morandi bridge collapses, and everyone is stuck in traffic jams for hours, we’ll need to remember the names of those who said no (to the project),” said Giovanni Calvini, who was then regional president of Confindustria, an employers’ association.
Several locals told The Daily Telegraph
that the structure shook noticeably when trucks rolled across it and many residents worried about crossing over and under it.
The bridge had to withstand more than 25 million vehicle crossings a year, with traffic volumes quadrupling in the last 30 years.
An engineering report released in 2009 studied the possibility of the bridge being demolished because of concerns over its structural integrity.
“The city is sad and of course the mourning comes first, but the city is also angry, because for years we have talked about substituting this bridge and it was never done,” said Paolo Maggio, a 46-year-old taxi driver.
“This will be a huge hit for the economy – it will impact cargo traffic to and from the airport, the ports, to France. For months, Genoa will be cut in half.”