Bridge collapse in Italy, at least 22 dead

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45183624

A motorway bridge has collapsed near the northwest Italian city of Genoa, sending vehicles plummeting up to 90m (295ft) to the ground and killing at least 22 people, officials say.

Video footage appears to show one of the towers holding up the suspension bridge collapsing in stormy weather.

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Damn. How tragic. I was living in Minnesota when the I35W bridge collapse happened. Really a shock to the community. Hoping Italy can handle ok. I have no idea how their infrastructure as a whole is
 
Apparently work was currently being undertaken to shore up the foundations.

Whoever signed the bridge off as safe whilst under maintenance is probably shitting bricks right now.
 
Apparently work was currently being undertaken to shore up the foundations.

Whoever signed the bridge off as safe whilst under maintenance is probably shitting bricks right now.

I should think that there's some fairly epic arse covering underway right now .
 
holy shit thats some drop.... that wouldve been a horrible way to go. RIP to all the people who lost their lives.

this is why countries need to maintain their infrastructure
 
The bridge is 50 years old but the concrete in this picture looks like it broke in segments like it was poorly bonded. The problem with concrete is it's difficult to know how strong it is.
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I always have a smidgen of discomfort whenever I'm driving in a tunnel or under a large pedestrian bridge or overpass because it's like "So motherfucker, is this gonna be the 1 out of million moment where you decide to collapse?"
 
Sadly, they took that bridge too far!

What a horrible way to go!
 
RIP.

At least one child dead. Those are always the worse for me.
 
I always have a smidgen of discomfort whenever I'm driving in a tunnel or under a large pedestrian bridge or overpass because it's like "So motherfucker, is this gonna be the 1 out of million moment where you decide to collapse?"

Are you Italian? Or in a country that deals with Italian contractors?
 
It's an unusual bridge design.

Don't even know what you would call it.
 
The death toll is up to 35 now. It seems there were known problems with the design of the bridge. Warnings went unheeded.

Engineer: Morandi Bridge was "constantly undergoing maintenance"
From CNN's Gianluca Mezzofiore

Antonio Brencich, an engineer and associate professor of reinforced concrete constructions at the University of Genoa, expressed concern about the bridge's safety back in 2016.

In an interview released with La Repubblica after the Morandi Bridge collapsed, he said the bridge was "constantly undergoing maintenance."

"It was affected by serious corrosion problems related to the technology that Morandi himself had patented, which he had not used anymore, and which proved to be disastrous."
He continued: "There are steel cables that are weighed and run inside sheaths, and then there is a system to fill the sheaths to prevent corrosion that can damage the cables. But the system didn't work as it was thought. The weighing of the cables didn't work as thought. Protection from corrosion wasn't what it was hoped for. This caused the structure to deteriorate at great speed. Think of the fact that the east tower was reinforced only 20 years after the opening of the bridge, as evidence of premature decay. 20 years is nothing, a blink of an eye in the life of a bridge."
 
The death toll is up to 35 now. It seems there were known problems with the design of the bridge. Warnings went unheeded.
Looks like an admission of guilt by the engineer.
 
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