The death toll following a major bridge collapse in Genoa, Italy has now reached 39, as recovery and rescue crews comb the wreckage of both the 1960s era concrete bridge and the buildings below it.
Among the sorrow for those killed, there have been some points of hope — four have so far been pulled alive from the wreckage of vehicles trapped underneath the twisted mass of concrete and steel.
A lorry stands on the edge of the collapsed Morandi motorway bridge in the northwestern city of Genoa on August 14, 2018. – About 30 people were killed when a giant motorway bridge collapsed in heavy rain in the Italian city of Genoa in what the government called an “immense tragedy”. The collapse, which saw a vast stretch of the A10 freeway tumble on to railway lines in the northern port city, came as the bridge was undergoing maintenance work and as the Liguria region, where Genoa is situated, experienced torrential rainfall / VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images
A picture taken on August 14, 2018 shows vehicles standing on a part of a giant motorway bridge after a section collapsed earlier in Genoa / LEONI/AFP/Getty Images
Hundreds of rescue workers employing helicopters, search dogs, and heavy construction and demolition equipment have worked around the clock since Tuesday morning when the Morandi bridge collapsed during a storm. 39 bodies have now been recovered after the disaster, which saw around 30 road vehicles fall 50 yards to the ground.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte expressed his sorrow at the tragedy when visiting Genoa Wednesday, remarking: “Tragedies like these are unacceptable in a modern society… this government will do everything because they are not repeated.” The Italian government has announced plans to plough money into investing in infrastructure in the aftermath of the Morandi collapse, but may be held back by European Union rules on government spending, reports Italian newspaper Il Giornale.
GENOA, ITALY – AUGUST 14: A general view of the Morandi bridge which collapsed on August 14, 2018 in Genoa, Italy. / Photo by Paolo Rattini/Getty Images
GENOA, ITALY – AUGUST 14: A general view of the Morandi bridge which collapsed on August 14, 2018 in Genoa, Italy. / Photo by Paolo Rattini/Getty Images
The Italian government has called on the senior management of the company that maintained the bridge to resign.
The failure of the enormous cable-stayed bridge, designed by celebrity Italian architect Riccardo Morandi in the 1960s using a technique he himself pioneered has launched a reassessment of the thousands of post-war concrete bridges across Europe.
Britain’s Daily Telegraph reports that potentially thousands of other concrete and steel bridges in Italy will come under question, while FranceInfo reports some 800 bridges in France like the Genoa one present a “long-term risk of collapse”.
A helicopter of the Vigili del Fuoco, the Italian fire and rescue service, flies over the site after a section of the Morandi motorway bridge collapsed earlier in Genoa on August 14, 2018. / VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images
Rescuers look at the Morandi motorway bridge after a section collapsed earlier in Genoa on August 14, 2018. / FEDERICO SCOPPA/AFP/Getty Images
A top Italian engineer who in the past has spoken out on the safety of the Genoa bridge criticised the designer directly, saying the celebrity architect Morandi had “great intuition, but was not very practical at calculations”, reports The Times. He told the paper the bridge was in a constant state of repair since completion, it needing endless work thanks to “corrosion after Morandi built it using a technique he patented which was not used again and was evidently a failure.”
The paper also cites critics who claim Morandi “got his sums wrong”, and failed to design the bridge to take into account the nature of the concrete it was built from. Another two bridges by the architect in Sicily has been closed in recent years over fears of potential collapse.
Oliver JJ Lane is the editor of Breitbart London — Follow him on Twitter and Facebook