Prosecutors investigate bridge design as death toll reaches 39
● Fears rise that remaining section may come crashing down
Italian prosecutors are focusing their investigation into the Genoa bridge collapse on possible design flaws or inadequate maintenance, as the death toll rose to 39 and politicians looked for someone to blame.
Fears are rising that a part of the Morandi Bridge which is still standing could also coming crashing down.
Authorities have widened their evacuation to include some 630 people living near the road bridge that was carved in two by the collapse of its mid-section during a violent storm.
On Tuesday, as many Italians were driving to vacation destinations on the eve of Italy’s biggest summer holiday, a huge stretch of the 51-yearold bridge collapsed, sending more than 30 cars and three lorries plunging to the ground as far as 150ft below.
As the Mediterranean port city of 600,000 reeled from the tragedy, around 1,000 rescue workers continued their search through tonnes of rubble for any more bodies. At least two more were pulled out yesterday.
Some of the debris that rained down from the bridge landed in a dry stream bed, while other wreckage came crashing down perilously close to apartment buildings.
At one point, Sky TG24 said, residents were temporarily stopped from even returning to their homes briefly to grab essential documents, medicine or other necessities.
Besides searching through the mountain of debris, emergency workers said it must be cleared away as soon as possible.
Genoa is a flood-prone city, and authorities warned the piles in the dry riverbed could become a dam within hours if heavy rains arrive.
Civil protection chief Angelo Borrelli confirmed 39 people had died and 15 were injured.
Interior minister Matteo Salvini said three children were among the dead. Three French citizens and two Albanians were also killed.
Genoa prosecutor Francesco Cozzi told reporters the investigation into the collapse is focusing on human causes, specifically the possibility of inadequate maintenance or a design flaw in the bridge’s construction.
He said: “I don’t know if there is responsibility. For sure it was not an accident.”
Asked if authorities had
been given any warning that the bridge – a key link between two major roads, one headed toward neighbouring France and the other to Milan – could be dangerous, Mr Cozzi indicated that no serious safety concerns had reached his office before Tuesday.
Otherwise, “none of us would have driven over that highway 20 times a month as we do,” he said.
Work to upgrade the bridge with a €20 million (£17.8 million) project had already been approved, with public bids for the work to be submitted by September. According to the business daily Il Sole, the improvement work involved two weight-bearing columns that support the bridge including one that collapsed on Tuesday.
The 1967 bridge, considered innovative in its time for its use of concrete around its cables, was long due for an upgrade, especially since the structure saw more traffic than its designers had envisioned.
Construction expert Antonio Brencich of the University of Genoa had previously called the bridge “a failure of engineering”.
Engineers, noting that the bridge was 51 years old, said corrosion and decades of wear and tear from the weather could have been factors in its collapse.
The Italian CNR civil engineering society said structures dating from when the Morandi Bridge was built had surpassed their lifespan.
It called for a comprehensive plan to repair or replace tens of thousands of Italian bridges and viaducts built in the 1950s and 1960s.