Shoddy maintenance may be the cause of the fatal bridge collapse in Italy, as the death toll rose to 39 and homes were evacuated over fears of lingering instability, officials said Wednesday.
“For sure, it was not an accident,” said Genoa Prosecutor Francesco Cozzi, adding that investigators were also looking for design flaws as a factor.
One of Italy’s leading parties had laughed off suggestions that a decades-old bridge in Genoa would collapse as “a fairy tale” years ago — but is now pointing the finger at a company for not making necessary repairs.
A now-deleted post on the Five Star Movement party’s website from 2013 argued against an ambitious construction and infrastructure project on Genoa’s highways — including the Morandi Bridge — blasting the plan as “a waste of money” and saying it would cause too many traffic disruptions, the Local Italy reported.
“We’ve been told about the little fairy tale of the imminent collapse of the Morandi Bridge,” party co-founder Beppe Grillo wrote in the post.
But after the bridge crumbled on Tuesday, Five Star, which is governing alongside the League Party, vowed to fine highway agency Autostrade close to $170 million — for not carrying out proper repair work.
“Instead of investing money for maintenance, they divide the profits and that is why the bridge falls,” Italy’s deputy premier Luigi Di Maio, of Five Star, said in Genoa on Wednesday.
He also took a swipe at the Benetton group, which controls Autostrade. Autostrade oversees 1,876 miles of Italian highways.
Over the years, several engineers and experts had warned the bridge collapse was imminent, including the president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce, who said in 2012 that it would crumble within the next 10 years.
A 2013 project known as “La Gronda,” which was opposed by anti-business Five Star, would have, in part, created a new motorway that would have alleviated traffic on the A10 where the Morandi Bridge collapsed.
A screenshot of the blog post opposing the plan was posted by local daily Il Secolo XIX.
“It’s a double disaster,” a Five Star parliamentarian told the daily. “On the one hand for the victims and their families, on the other because in the coming weeks they will throw us in the meat grinder for our battles on the territory.”
Still, Italy’s minister of transportation and infrastructure Danilo Toninelli said there was a plan pending to spend $22.7 million on bids for work to get done on the bridge.
Meanwhile, hundreds of rescuers were continuing their search Wednesday for survivors and remains after scouring huge piles of twisted metal and concrete overnight. Authorities also widened evacuation orders to include 630 people living near the highway bridge.
With Post wires
