Demolition of Italy’s Morandi bridge begins

Experts begin the delicate task of taking apart Genoa's Morandi motorway bridge this morning.

A 200-meter-long section of the Morandi bridge, part of a motorway linking the Italian port city with southern France, gave way on Aug. 14 last year in busy lunchtime traffic, sending dozens of vehicles into free-fall and killing 43 people.

Thousands of tonnes of steel, concrete, and asphalt have already been removed from the spectacularly truncated high-rise bridge in the northern Italian port city to make it lighter before the "deconstruction" operation begins.

Four powerful strand-jacks positioned on the bridge by an enormous crane will unhook and slowly lower a 36 by 18 meter (118 by 59 foot) concrete slab weighing over 900 tonnes this morning.

Marco Bucci, Genoa mayor and special commissioner for bridge reconstruction, said he was pleased with the rebuilding development so far.

“Since the afternoon of Aug. 14, when we became aware of the tragedy, we rolled up our sleeves and started working immediately. The whole city did the same,” he said. “Every time a segment of the bridge is demolished or rebuilt we prove to the citizens that this is the way things should be done.”

After the bridge collapse, the Italian government blamed operator Autostrade per l’Italia for poor maintenance of the viaduct and threatened to revoke the group’s concessions. Autostrade has denied any wrongdoing in the disaster.

The reconstruction contract has been awarded to Italy’s biggest builder Salini Impregilo and shipbuilder Fincantieri. Demolition and reconstruction of the new bridge are planned to take about 15 months.

Italy's most famous living architect Renzo Piano, a Genoa native, has provided the design for the replacement bridge that "will last for 1,000 years".

The new structure will look deliberately different from the old one, opened in 1967, and will feature 43 lamp poles in memory of those killed when a section collapsed during a storm on August 14, sending dozens of vehicles and tonnes of concrete tumbling to the ground.

The new bridge is estimated to cost 202 million euros, making it one of the most expensive in Europe.

It is expected to be open to traffic by April 2020, junior transport minister Edoardo Rizi said on Thursday, with the demolition to take 190 days.