A motorway bridge, running above houses, streets and railroad tracks in the center of Genoa, Italy, collapsed this morning dropping dozens of vehicles and leaving at least 35 dead and many more injured. Operations remain underway to clear the rubble as at least 30 vehicles sit trapped. Rescuers warn that the death toll may continue to rise as they pick through the debris.
"The collapse of Ponte Morandi is an immense tragedy for our city," said Genoa Mayor Marco Bucci, who told CCN that the collapse "was not absolutely unexpected." Deputy transport minister Edoardo Rixi also confirmed that the bridge had shown "signs of problems" in the past.
Constructed in the 1960s, when many of the country's viaducts, galleries and other infrastructure projects were built, the Ponte Morandi bridge was beginning to show its age. A cable-stayed bridge, the design featured two pretensioned concrete cables used on both sides of the pillar. Subject to corrosion, it may have made the bridge, which required constant maintenance as an essential traffic hub, vulnerable to collapse.
8 Comments
The Italian engineers looking at this disaster said reinforced concrete is good for about 50 years, after which the re-bars start to corrode. Time to rethink how we build infrastructure. 50 years don't cut it.
how old was the twin cities bridge? and it was all steel.
Thinking about maintenance. You can paint steel, don't know how to get at re-bars you can't see. At least over build by 100.
inside job
not really, more like corruption unchecked in the 60-70's , there's been a lot of buildings collapsing in the last 20 years that were built in that era, I remember one where the concrete just crumbled, it was mostly sand.....others where columns were missing right away; it's an interesting period of italy's history, after the war, the mafia allied with politicians from all sides to boost their grab.
plus, the 50 year factor - they counted on being dead long before any personal consequences.
or... is it more like a vast secret organization's attempt to drum up support for an Italian cola flavoured beverage? Open your mind sheeple! The signs are right there, connect the dots, connect all the dots!
The FIU bridge that recently collapsed before completion was concrete and rebar construction. Photos taken before the collapse that are in the NTSB preliminary report show massive cracks in the structure. (As in stop traffic, move the bridge back to the side of the road and scrap it)
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