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Disaster bridge Genoa hardly checked and maintained

The collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa was the result of design flaws, poor maintenance and inadequate controls. Experts come to this conclusion in a 400-page report on the disaster, which killed 43 people. “If checks and maintenance were done correctly, the collapse would probably have been avoided,” say the engineers and experts.

Since the disaster in August 2018, the blame question has been pointed to operator Autostrade per l’Italia. That company would have failed to maintain it. Previous investigation by the Italian authorities according to Prime Minister Conte to “serious and unforgivable negligence”.

The experts now also say there was a lot wrong with the bridge. Some pillars had barely been checked in the last 25 years and steel cables were subject to corrosion. Designer Riccardo Morandi himself had raised the risk of corrosion in the early decades after the bridge’s opening, but his recommendations were ignored. All in all, nothing has been done since the construction of the bridge to prevent deterioration of the structure or to correct errors, the experts conclude.

Images of the Genoa disaster went around the world. We made this retrospective earlier:

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