Genoa (italy) bridge failure

[Pud]

Ref: thread815-443075

Update on Genoa bridge failure:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62076262

Politicians like to panic, they need activity. It is their substitute for achievement.

 

[spsalso]

There's a trial. Any chance on seeing who the defendants might be?


spsalso

 

[LittleWheels]

From the link above, "Many of the 59 on trial worked for Italian motorway firm Autostrade per Italia (Aspi) and Spea engineering company, which was responsible for looking after the bridge. <SNIP> Former Aspi chief executive Giovanni Castellucci is among the best known of those on trial. <SNIP> Although a number of executives and staff from Aspi and Spea are defendants, the companies themselves have already agreed an out-of-court settlement with prosecutors."

 

[spsalso]

Thank you. I was interested in a more detailed list. In particular, who from various governmental entities would be on the list. Also who from the designers of the bridge. Essentially, who was NOT Aspi or Spea, and what was their position.

It appears that someone HAD been doing some sort of maintenance on the bridge. There are photos that show (I believe) an added structure underneath the roadway, at the towers. And that the one that failed did not yet have that. That DOES look like someone was doing maintenance, though perhaps this task was viewed as something else, like "structural modification".

Since it appears that one of the suspension tension members failed, I am wondering what was supposed to be done by the maintenance people (Aspi, Spea) to prevent it. Or even know about it, to prevent. There was a comment about the "...cables...corroded by sea air.". Since the sea air was a known environmental factor when the bridge was built, what did the designers do to prevent or minimize this corrosion? Did they suggest an inspection method to be followed by the maintenance companies?






spsalso

 

[LittleInch]

spsalso - I think you might need to go and re read the original thread as a lot of this was in there.

I can't remember all the details, but it appears that the other two similar structures had some or part of the single essentially replaced by external cables instead of those internal to the concrete, plus they were reinforced over the apex of the tower structure. Go to 17th August 18 in the original thread to see the different tops of the towers.

I suspect the issue will be that the cables were simply assumed to be perfectly safe from corrosion as they were surrounded in concrete which would last for a 100 years.... and hence it would be difficult to test for corrosion.

Also bridges tend to take a long time to fall down or get to a really dangerous condition so it's easy to defer major repairs to another year if you're short of money if the item is assessed as minor or moderate corrosion as opposed to severe...

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.