Walls and Bridges

Italian magazine L’Espresso’s investigative reporter Fabrizio Gatti writes that engineers had warned already in February that corrosion of the metal cables supporting the Genoa highway bridge had reduced the bridge’s strength by 20 per cent — months before the structure’s deadly collapse last week. Despite the warnings, however, “neither the ministry, nor the highway company, ever considered it necessary to limit traffic, divert heavy trucks, reduce the roadway from two to one lanes or reduce the speed” of vehicles on the key artery for the northern port city, Mr. Gatti writes. Furthermore – Mr. Gatti adds – the six-member Committee of Inquiry appointed by the Italian Minister of Infrastructures and Transports to investigate the responsibility of disaster, includes three commissioners — named by the Minister himself — who have been working for Autostrade per l’Italia, the private company that operates the A10 toll highway.

The scene of the Morandi Bridge collapse. Photo: Luca Zennaro/ANSA/AP.