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Main highway bridge in Genoa Italy collapses, multiple deaths

AUS-97HORN

By AUS-97HORN
in Daily Texan

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AUS-97HORN

AUS-97HORN 11824

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older bridge collapsed in the middle of a very violent storm, The bridge stood over 80 meters off the ground, and a stretch of more than 200 meters of the bridge actually fell

There is a video of the end of the collapse as well
 

https://www.wral.com/reports-raised-highway-collapses-in-italian-city-of-genoa/17767886/

MILAN — A bridge on a main highway between Italy and France collapsed Tuesday in the Italian city of Genoa during a sudden, violent storm, sending vehicles plunging 80 meters (262 feet) into a heap of rubble below.

Amalia Tedeschi, a firefighter, told RAI state TV that some 20 vehicles had been involved in the collapse. She said two people had been pulled alive from vehicles in the rubble that fell into an industrial area below the bridge and were being transported by helicopter to a hospital.

Italian media reported deaths in the tragedy, but Maria Luisa Catalano, a police official in Genoa, said authorities were focused on rescue efforts and did not yet know the number of victims or injured.

The private broadcaster Sky TG24 said a 200-meter (over 650-foot) section of the Morandi Bridge collapsed over an industrial zone. Firefighters told The Associated Press they were worried about gas lines exploding in the area from the collapse.

 

 

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Dertyberd

Dertyberd 394

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CSB

Have a friend who lives in a village outside of Genoa and takes that bridge to work daily.  Spoke to him about 45 minutes ago as he was heading home on the old mountain highway.  Normally he's a jovial little Italian fucker with a high pitched voice.  Dude sounded like Ben Stein.  Never heard someone in shock like that before.  That bridge is very busy and it's absence will fuck up a lot in the city.  

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31541

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1 hour ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

I was in Italy for the first time this summer.  One of my comments to her was that you could tell there wasn’t quite enough money to go around for infrastructure there.  Prescient.  

Italy treats historical monuments like absolute shit.  Always has.  And apparently other infrastructure too.

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clapclapclap

clapclapclap 9000

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Quote

Expert warned of bridge problems in 2016

A structural engineer who lectures at Genoa University, Antonio Brencich, warned back in 2016 that there were problems with the bridge, Italian media report. It was inaugurated in 1967.

"Right away the bridge manifested various problems, beyond the construction costs, which went over budget," he wrote in 2016.

"There are errors in this bridge. Sooner or later it will have to be replaced. I don't know when," he warned.

The Italian site ingegneri.info quotes his warning in full.

In the 1990s some major repairs were done to the bridge.

Mr Brencich said the designer, Riccardo Morandi, had miscalculated the "viscous deformation" - an ageing effect on reinforced concrete. "He was an engineer with great insight but lacking in practical calculations."

Sounds like Morandi was an Italian Calatrava.  Good thing Dallas never gets strong storms.

Dallas-.jpg

Maybe they'll both fall outwards.  $115 million and counting for a pair of fake bridges, maintenance that will consume at least 1% of the city's annual road maintenance budget.

https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/some-think-mcdermott-suspension-bridge-might-need-to-be-demolished-10880572

McDermott Bridge May Have to Be Demolished Like Fake Kayak Rapids

The moment has arrived when we must expand our thinking about the new and troubled Margaret McDermott Bridge designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava on the Trinity River downtown. We’ve got to add at least one extreme outcome to the far end of the spectrum of possibilities.

It may have to come down.

Still not declared safe even for foot traffic a full year after its completion and scheduled opening, the McDermott appears to be devolving into deeper and deeper controversy and recrimination among designers, builders, engineers and the people who paid for it. The city of Dallas’ latest letter to the project engineer reads less like an effort to solve a problem than an exhibit in a lawsuit.

Even more telling, the newly released correspondence between the city and the engineer, as well as a memo sent last week by the Dallas city manager to the City Council, both hint at problems that could be unsolvable. It doesn’t mean they are. But it means that in a year of intense pressure and scrutiny, no one has yet figured out how to fix them.

Two arches, both 340 feet high and 1,200 feet in length, loom over 10 busy lanes of freeway traffic on conventional concrete pier-and-beam bridges below. What does it mean for the immense arches to remain in place in a condition not certified as safe even for pedestrian traffic? Three City Council members whose districts are close to the bridge are worried:

“If it’s not safe for humans to walk across, is it safe to even stand there?” council member Philip Kingston of East Dallas and downtown asked last week.

“What happens if a cable breaks?” asked council member Scott Griggs of North Oak Cliff. “That’s a huge public safety problem.”

Council member Omar Narvaez of West and southern Dallas said, “I don’t know yet at what point we just sit there and go, ‘You know what, this is too much.’

“We’ve got to do something different, up to and including taking the arches down, if there isn’t a reasonable way to fix them. That would be a last resort — last, last, last resort — but if it’s going to cost us as much as the bridge did to fix the issue, for that amount we might as well build another bridge.”

Tearing down a bridge for which taxpayers paid almost $100 million — demolishing it before it bears even a single day of traffic — may sound crazy. But it begins to sound a bit more plausible when the McDermott Bridge is placed in its proper political and historical context.

It’s a very strange bridge — two immense arches looming over but not supporting two freeway bridges in order to create the false impression that the whole business is one big suspension bridge. It was brought to us by the city’s old, wealthy oligarchy of heirs and business leaders, the same people who brought us a 20-year failed battle to build an unneeded expressway on top of the river....

 

Edited by clapclapclap
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phdhorn

phdhorn 6224

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2 hours ago, clapclapclap said:

Mr Brencich said the designer, Riccardo Morandi, had miscalculated the "viscous deformation" - an ageing effect on reinforced concrete. "He was an engineer with great insight but lacking in practical calculations."

This is what happens when you get Italian aggy designing bridges.

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JimmyHoffa

JimmyHoffa 1188

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4 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

damn, was looking over the dailymail and they've got this picture:

4F1C297600000578-0-image-a-33_1534331069

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6062911/Shocking-photo-shows-Genoa-bridge-crumbling-weeks-collapsed-killing-38-people.html

that thing was a waiting deathtrap.

 

When I first saw that picture I thought it had to be fake. Seriously what the fuck?! 

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Digdogger

Digdogger 1344

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5 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

damn, was looking over the dailymail and they've got this picture:

4F1C297600000578-0-image-a-33_1534331069

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6062911/Shocking-photo-shows-Genoa-bridge-crumbling-weeks-collapsed-killing-38-people.html

that thing was a waiting deathtrap.

Those cables were probably just extras.  They hung them off the edge so they wouldn’t get lost

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