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[cryptoadam]

Italy motorway bridge collapses in heavy rains, 'dozens' feared dead

ROME - A motorway bridge collapsed on Tuesday over the northern Italian port city of Genoa, killing dozens of people according to the local ambulance service, in what the transport minister said was likely to be "an immense tragedy."

The local fire brigade said the bridge collapsed at around 11:30 a.m. (0930 GMT) during torrential rainfall. Television showed images of the collapsed section of the bridge, built on the A10 toll motorway in the 1960s.


The head of the ambulance service said there were "dozens of dead," according to Italian news agency Adnkronos. At least 10 people were killed and 20 vehicles were involved, local police sources said.

An ambulance official told Reuters the service could only confirm two injured people so far, "but we suppose there are unfortunately a lot of dead."

What a tragedy. Hopefully the there supposition is wrong and there aren't as many dead as they think.

Always a big fear of mine that a bridge will collapse while driving. Where I live we had an incident like this where parts of an elevated highway fell onto passing by cars.

 

[dolabla]

Oh man, that is terrible seeing that video. Hope people are just trapped in the rubble instead of worse case scenario, but seeing that is pretty bad.

 

[diablos991]

That’s a big fall. This would be a terrible way to go and I hope the death toll is much lower than the reports I heard this morning.

This is a catastrophic failure that must have had some indication before this point.

Wonder if the last bridge inspection overlooked something.

 

[J-Roderton]

Horrible.

 

[RokkanStoned]

Scary. Makes you wonder if this could be predicted and who's fault it is.

 

[Boss Mog]

Truly a tragedy that sadly could have been avoided. Too much public money is wasted instead of being put into infrastructure maintenance and replacement in Europe and the US.

 

[Gander]

Take note our infrastructure is in pretty bad shape itself and we are entering hurricane season.

 

[Cybrwzrd]

This is why I have an irrational fear of driving over tall bridges. It always gives heebie jeebies. Like the Coronado Bay Bridge is horrifying, yet I like driving over it too.

 

[J-Roderton]

This is why I have an irrational fear of driving over tall bridges. It always gives heebie jeebies. Like the Coronado Bay Bridge is horrifying, yet I like driving over it too.

Ya. I hate bridges. New River Gorge Bridge in WV is scary af.

 

[Z3K]

I just hope this tragedy wasn't caused by the drastic cuts the Italian govt made over the last decade.

 

[Paracelsus]

RIP to the victims

I just hope this tragedy wasn't caused by the drastic cuts the Italian govt made over the last decade.

The bridge was a giant turd built in the 60s in seemingly modern way for the time, which was dropped shortly afterwards because it sucked. The amount of money Italy spent to service that piece of shit is probably enough to build a new bridge five to ten times over. Here you have a brief summary of what they did and you can sort of understand.

http://www.euronews.com/2018/08/14/engineer-warned-in-2016-that-genoa-bridge-would-need-rebuilding

It was never meant to withstand that much traffic, and yet it became the sole traffic artery for most trucks coming from France (and thus, Spain) throughout the whole country. Now, there was a project for this



The so-called "gronda", a new modern highway to bypass the bridge and lessen the burden on the structure, possibly allowing to properly take care of it or outright rebuild it. Project has been in the pipeline for 18 years: centrists were laughing at it no later than 2 years ago ("the thing is gonna stay up for 100 more years lol") and so did the democrats. Republicans wanted it, but that's saying very little.

 

[cryptoadam]

RIP to the victims


The bridge was a giant turd built in the 60s in seemingly modern way for the time, which was dropped shortly afterwards because it sucked. The amount of money Italy spent to service that piece of shit is probably enough to build a new bridge five to ten times over. Here you have a brief summary of what they did and you can sort of understand.

http://www.euronews.com/2018/08/14/engineer-warned-in-2016-that-genoa-bridge-would-need-rebuilding

It was never meant to withstand that much traffic, and yet it became the sole traffic artery for most trucks coming from France (and thus, Spain) throughout the whole country. Now, there was a project for this



The so-called "gronda", a new modern highway to bypass the bridge and lessen the burden on the structure, possibly allowing to properly take care of it or outright rebuild it. Project has been in the pipeline for 18 years: centrists were laughing at it no later than 2 years ago ("the thing is gonna stay up for 100 more years lol") and so did the democrats. Republicans wanted it, but that's saying very little.

So sounds like this was just waiting to happen one way or another. I guess in a way its lucky that it didn't happen already.

 

[Breakage]

Imagine driving over that as it collapsed. I heard a baby was among the dead. The photos of the aftermath are unreal: cars completely flattened among chunks of concrete.

 

[STI]

RIP

 

[TheKingOfPain]

Now, who's to blame? We know the answer. Who's going to be punished? Nobody. Who's going to rebuild the thing, making profit of this disaster? The same people who are to blame and should be punished.
Just more of the same.

 

[Cybrwzrd]

Jesus, they were letting people drive over this bridge in that condition.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...mbling-weeks-collapsed-killing-38-people.html

 

[AgentP]

This is what you get without government regulations and agencies that monitor and enforce them.

 

[lil puff]

Jesus, they were letting people drive over this bridge in that condition.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...mbling-weeks-collapsed-killing-38-people.html

Yeah it's a rough one.

I am seriously trying to find a benefit of the doubt for this, but feel like an idiot even trying. It looks like they took a risk before the people and figured they could get it done in time. This should never happen.
I would need to read the generous links provided earlier to understand alternative routes and other things they should have considered, but it's not like I have a phD in transport.

There are times when I get anxious in subway tunnels and bridges to the point where I have a hard time breathing.

I read that some there considered this their "Brooklyn Bridge".

 

[Spheyr]

Heaven:

• The police are British
• The cooks are French
• The engineers are German
• The administrators are Swiss
• The lovers are Italian

Hell:

• The police are German
• The cooks are British
• The engineers are Italian
• The administrators are French
• The lovers are Swiss

 

[MisterFalcon]

I read that some there considered this their "Brooklyn Bridge".

Despite the Brooklyn Bridge being almost 100 years older it was built far more sensibly. By using only the absolute minimum number of cables the Genoa bridge looks clean but replacing a cable is impossible. Sensible bridges have far more cables so replacing one does not bring the whole bridge down.

All of Morandi's bridges are made like this and are just as dangerous.