Italy bridge: State of emergency follows Genoa disaster

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Italian PM Giuseppe Conte has declared a 12-month state of emergency in the Liguria region in response to the motorway bridge collapse in Genoa.

He also said he would make an initial €5m ($5.7m) available from central funds to the north-western region.

The regional government had requested the action following Tuesday's disaster, which left 39 people dead.

There has been anger and disbelief in Italy that such a vital structure could have simply given way.

Rescuers have said there is little hope of finding more survivors underneath the Morandi bridge, where dozens of vehicles fell from a height of 45m (148ft) in Tuesday morning's collapse.

The cause is not yet known but there has been heavy criticism of the private company responsible for operating the bridge.

Link.

[K. A. Pital]

The cause is corruption and poor maintenance, as well as extreme fatigue of objects from post-war era which weren't meant to last so long without being replaced from the ground up.

[SpottedKitty]

The cause is corruption and poor maintenance, as well as extreme fatigue of objects from post-war era which weren't meant to last so long without being replaced from the ground up.

Changes in the expected traffic load should also be a factor — the amount of modern traffic, particularly more, bigger and heavier multi-ton lorryloads, wasn't even considered possible way back when the bridge was built. We've had similar problems here in the UK with the early motorways and connecting bits just wearing out. There have been close calls, but IIRC there hasn't been a major catastrophic collapse like this... yet.

[madd0ct0r]

Lots of knee jerk accusations in this thread [stas]

Wait for the report, but i will lay good odds on it being an exceptionally tragic cockup at the interface of a storm and a maintenance gang looking at the foundations

[K. A. Pital]

Lots of knee jerk accusations in this thread [stas]

Wait for the report, but i will lay good odds on it being an exceptionally tragic cockup at the interface of a storm and a maintenance gang looking at the foundations

It is not kneejerk, really, but spoken from experience... sadly. Regarding Italy, you should first see with your own eyes the state in which many infrastructure objects are or the scale of corruption in construction, especially deeper into the South, to believe it... I wish it was different this time, and I'd love to be wrong and this just a tragic storm consequence, but I fear it is not.

[Sea Skimmer]

Photos I saw so far show the bridge had at the least, major spalling off the decking, truss and main piers and some kind of cabling dangling off the bottom which may have been utilities, over peoples houses mind you, in the weeks prior to collapse. It was in such bad shape one span had major reinforcement added about two decades ago, but such asymmetrical reinforcement is always a dubious concept in bridge engineering, it can shift loads in ways you don't expect.

But end of the day it was engineered bad by a guy who seems to have specialized in making pretty bridges with inefficent designs, and built very badly , and then not maintained well, and ample specific warnings of this existed. Warnings that it would fall down within 10 years... 6 years ago. That it collapsed with traffic is just negligence at work. The traffic load was x30 times the original design assumptions, but bridges all over the world cope with that without collapsing with traffic on them.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

The sad part is they're not even close to recovering the twenty-odd bodies they're expecting to find under all the debris. What surprised me was that there was a tower block directly underneath the bridge.

I have to wonder what they do about the remaining sections of the bridge? Tearing them down looks like it would be very difficult.

[Jub]

I don't think they have any choice but to tear down anything left standing if they intend to replace the bridge. Even if not, leaving the remains of the bridge there has to be a safety issue so it'll need some attention regardless of current plans.

[Sea Skimmer]

I have to wonder what they do about the remaining sections of the bridge? Tearing them down looks like it would be very difficult.

They won't be able to avoid destroying more buildings to tear it down, but that was always going to be required, and would be required to clear the way for a new bridge construction. Given the very poor condition of the bridge and difficulty of demolishing any cable stay bridge designed with only one set of stays per span I suspect the main towers will have to be blown up. The western approaches are high, but within the limits of high reach demolition equipment from the ground that could crumble them bit by bit. The eastern spans are largely over an abandon railway yard meanwhile.

On a side note, this collapse is only a couple kilometers from the dry dock they demolished the wreck of Costa Concordia in, finishing just over a year ago.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Well, 10 months on they've demolished the rest of the bridge.

A spectacular controlled explosion has brought down the remaining spans and supporting pillars of the Italian bridge that collapsed last year with the loss of 43 lives.

The blast in Genoa triggered a huge cloud of grey dust as the pillars and roadway leaned inwards, then crumbled like a sandcastle.

In a few seconds, the Morandi Bridge was history, with debris falling into the riverbed under what had been a key link between the high-speed highway leading to the French Riviera and another route linking Genoa, a major port city, to Milan.

Minutes before the blast, sirens sounded a final warning.

Remaining parts of collapsed Italian bridge demolished.
Another website pointed out the interesting use of water tanks that were detonated just before the remains of the bridge itself in an effort to contain the dust.

[SpottedKitty]

Another website pointed out the interesting use of water tanks that were detonated just before the remains of the bridge itself in an effort to contain the dust.

Probably also for a similar reason that rockets on the launch pad have their engines sprayed with water starting just before ignition — to absorb and contain shockwaves, and reduce the chance of damage to anything nearby that you don't want blowed up real good. Interesting; I'd been wondering how they were going to safely demolish the remains of the bridge.