Bridge Collapse in Genoa, Italy

[angelburst29]

Nearly half of the newly constructed Genoa bridge is done, with a deadline set for the bridge to be completed before Summer 2020.

Engineers working around the clock to complete Genoa bridge by summer

FILE PHOTO: General view of the partially completed new Genoa bridge, also known as the Polcevera viaduct, in Genoa, Italy, February 5, 2020. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

February 10, 2020 - Day and night for months on end hundreds of workers have been toiling with cranes, pipes, concrete blocks and steel rods to complete a new bridge in the northern Italian port city of Genoa by a summer deadline.

Forty three people were killed on Aug. 14, 2018, when the old bridge collapsed, hurling cars and trucks to the ground below and prompting national outrage, especially against infrastructure group Atlantia which had operated it.

Completing the new infrastructure in a timely fashion is key to re-establishing the connection between Genoa and France.

A joint venture comprising Salini Impregilo and shipbuilder Fincantieri is responsible for the project, which will cost 202 million euros, excluding the amount needed for the demolition of the old viaduct.

Work has now gone past the halfway mark, with 16 of the 18 planned 40 metre-high (131 feet) columns in place and seven out of 19 deck sections laid.

“The bridge is set to be completed before summer 2020 so we are making every possible effort to meet this deadline,” site construction manager Stefano Mosconi said.

Some 70,000 cubic meters (2472 cubic feet) of concrete have been used in the construction of the viaduct, which stretches about 1 kilometer across the valley. Much of the work is invisible, with the column foundations sunk 50 meters (164 feet) underground.

Security and durability have been central to the project, but so have environmental aspects. In energy terms, the bridge will be self-sufficient, with solar panels providing electricity for the lighting system.

“We are convinced that this can mark the beginning of a turning point for our sector, a turning point for the country,” Meistro said.

Bridge Collapses in Italy, Burying a Crossing Truck

The incident occurred on Wednesday near Albiano in Massa Carrara province in Tuscany at a bridge connecting the provincial roads SP62 and SP70. A vehicle was crossing the bridge at the moment of the collapse.

It looks quite serious:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1247812092297650178

 

[anka]

Bridge Collapses in Italy, Burying a Crossing Truck...

Interestingly, in between those two events (in Genova and this latest from Massa Carrara) there was another in collapsed Italian bridges series, this time caused by a landslide (from November 24, 2019).

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

They are all somewhat close together so I leave it here for the record:



Perhaps unrelated, but somehow fitting into the Matrix is the ship crash that happened in South Korea April 6, 2020, two days before the last bridge collapse posted by angelburst29. The name of the cargo ship is a bit weird - MILANO BRIDGE (Milan is not too far from those three locations):

 

[angelburst29]

They are all somewhat close together so I leave it here for the record:

Thanks for the Map, Anka.

I'm wondering, considering I don't know the age of the bridges and that all three are close to the Sea, if the water table around the foundations are compromising the supports in some way, as to weaken the spans between them and they just "give way"? In the photo of this recent collapse in Northern Italy, it looks like 4 spans of highway between supports have collapsed at the same time?

Road bridge in north Italy collapses, two suffer minor injuries

A bridge on a normally busy provincial road in northern Italy collapsed on Wednesday but, with virtually no traffic due to the coronavirus lockdown, only two truck drivers suffered minor injuries, the fire brigade said.

spokesman for the fire brigade said the 260 metre bridge on the SS330 road near the town of Aulla, roughly midway between Genoa and Florence, in the northern tip of Tuscany, collapsed at 1025 local time (0825 GMT).

Although casualties were limited in Wednesday's incident, it highlights the poor state of repair of Italy's road network, after the collapse of a motorway bridge in the port city of Genoa in 2018 that killed 43 people.

Helicopter views of the area of the latest accident showed sections of the bridge crossing the river Magra had collapsed to the level of the water, buckling a stretch of road behind it.

The bridge used to be managed by provincial authorities before being put under the management of ANAS, a company controlled by state-owned railway group Ferrovie dello Stato.

The infrastructure has undergone periodic safety controls since 2019, ANAS said in a statement, adding it had formed an ad-hoc group to find out the causes of the collapse.

Transport Minister Paola De Micheli, who said ANAS had been operating the bridge since 2018, said the ministry had set up a committee to investigate the incident and draw up a report in 30 days.

Uploaded on Apr 8, 2020 (1:15 min.)

 

[angelburst29]

Workers in face masks laid the final section of a new viaduct in Genoa on Tuesday, as Italy's prime minister paid tribute to the 43 people killed when the road bridge it is replacing collapsed less than two years ago.

Genoa viaduct rises from tragedy, defying coronavirus curbs

April 28, 2020 - While the country’s severe coronavirus epidemic has halted most construction projects nationwide, teams building the link across the port city’s Polcevera River defied a flood and one case of the disease to finish it on schedule.

Connecting Italy with France, the old bridge broke apart on Aug. 14, 2018, prompting national outrage. “This cannot be a day of celebration because it derives from a tragedy but the Genoa model sheds a light on the whole of Italy,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told guests at a small ceremony held beneath the new structure.

Much of the public anger was directed at against infrastructure group Atlantia, which operated the old bridge.

Hundreds of workers in a new consortium, comprising inspection and engineering services group RINA, builder Salini Impregilo and shipbuilder Fincantieri, have been working day and night since January 2019 to erect the new structure. [nL8N2A80H1]

With just the resurfacing left to complete, they hope to reopen the link in less than three months.

“The goal is to open the bridge to traffic in the second half of July... If we are lucky with the weather, we can make it,” said Roberto Carpaneto, CEO of RINA Consulting.

In the coming weeks, workers will lay concrete and asphalt on the viaduct, set up lighting and build in all the security systems incorporated by its Genoa-born superstar architect, Renzo Piano.

So far some 70,000 cubic metres (2.5 million cubic feet) of concrete have been used in building the bridge, which spans around 1 kilometre (0.6 miles) across the valley.

 

[angelburst29]

New Genoa bridge to open in August, two years after fatal collapse

July 21, 2020 - A new viaduct in the Italian port city of Genoa will open next month, built to replace a motorway bridge that collapsed almost two years ago, killing 43 people.

“Genoa’s Saint George bridge will be inaugurated on Aug. 3 at 1830 local time (1630 GMT),” Genoa Mayor Marco Bucci said on a post on his Facebook account. Bucci is also the state-appointed commissioner for the replacement of the bridge.

Connecting Italy with France, a section of the old bridge broke apart on Aug. 14, 2018, sending dozens of cars plunging to the ground. The disaster prompting national outrage and triggered a bitter dispute between the government and infrastructure group Atlantia, whose motorway unit managed the viaduct.

Hundreds of workers in a consortium including inspection and engineering services group RINA, builder Webuild and shipbuilder Fincantieri, have been working day and night since January 2019 to erect the new structure in a project led by Genoa-born architect Renzo Piano.