After the tears, the pride. Almost two years, to the day, after the collapse of the Genoa bridge that left 43 people dead on August 14, 2018, Italy is inaugurating a new viaduct on Monday August 3, at 6.30 p.m. local time. The country's authorities claim to have learned the lessons of the disaster, which cast a harsh light on the management and maintenance failures of certain infrastructure in the country. With this new structure, erected in record time which contrasts sharply with other major Italian projects, the political leaders want to make the structure the mark of a renewal. The President of the Council Giuseppe Conte, who takes part in its inauguration, declared that the new viaduct of Genoa, baptized San Giorgio, would be a "symbol of the new Italian renaissance". Back to this Italian tragedy in 10 photos.  

1965, the Genoa bridge is under construction. The work is a concrete structure, with few cables to balance the road where the vehicles pass: this is the trademark of its architect, the Italian Riccardo Morandi. With a length of 1182 meters, the viaduct was built in four years and inaugurated in 1967. © Archives du studio Leoni, AFP

In 1967, the day the building was inaugurated, the Italian president Giuseppe Saragat (middle) and the engineer Riccardo Morandi (second from the right), observe the model of the motorway structure and salute its modernity. It must be said that when it was built, the Morandi viaduct is an innovative construction because its concrete structure is similar to a cable-stayed bridge but with two concrete tie rods instead of a series of steel cables. But the process also proves to be very resilient: if a single piece is loose, the whole bridge falls. This construction technique is no longer used today. © Archives du studio Leoni, AFP

On August 14, 2018, in heavy rain, the Morandi motorway bridge, an essential axis for trade with France but also for local journeys, collapsed, causing dozens of vehicles to fall. The collapse of the bridge kills 43, including four children. © Valery Hache, AFP

Thousands of tons of steel, concrete and asphalt collapsed on an industrial area in the Italian city of Genoa during a sudden and violent storm, leaving vehicles crushed in rubble and other stranded cars on the remaining segment. The day after the tragedy, the head of the Italian government decreed a state of emergency for twelve months in Genoa. Five million euros have been released for interventions and compensation for the 630 people living in the lowlands who must be relocated. © Antonio Calanni, AP

Consolidation work on the viaduct deck was underway before the bridge collapsed. Interviewed the day after the disaster, Jean-Michel Torrenti, director of the Materials and Structures department at the French Institute for Transport, Planning and Network Sciences and Technologies (Ifsttar) blamed the corrosion of a prestressing of a stay cable, which could have caused its rupture and caused the disaster. © Nicola Marfisi, AP

Saturday August 18, declared a national day of mourning, Italy sends a sober and solemn farewell to the victims in the Genoa exhibition center. During the ceremony, all the highest officials of the state are present. Nineteen coffins are lined up under huge sprays of flowers. The families of some of the victims, however, chose not to participate in the ceremony, some preferring a more intimate funeral and in their city, others clearly announcing a boycott, pointing to the responsibility of the state. © Gregorio Borgia, AP

The dismantling operations begin in February 2019. The operation is proving to be delicate because this suspension bridge partly overlaps with dwellings - the buildings under the bridge are however condemned - and a railway track. In a cloud of dust, the two main cable-stayed piers of what remains of the Morandi Bridge are destroyed with explosives on June 28, 2019 on Friday morning, to allow the reconstruction of a new infrastructure. The clearance, which should last 6 months, should allow the port city to foresee the prospect of a return to normal. © Antonio Calanni, AP

It is another Italian architect, Renzo Piano, who is in charge of rebuilding the viaduct. This native of Genoa, who designed the Center Pompidou and the new courthouse in Paris, promised that the new work would last at least 1,000 years. Resolutely different from the Morandi bridge, the "Piano bridge", in steel and concrete, will have "something of a boat, because it is something of Genoa", explained its designer in December. It will have 43 lampposts in memory of the 43 people who died in the accident. The construction of the bridge, at an estimated cost of 202 million euros, will be carried out by a consortium of companies comprising Sailini-Impregilo, Fincantieri and ItalFerr. © Piero Cruciatti, AP

Italy, reputed champion of slowness in the execution of public works, is working hard and in April completes the bridge, to the point where we speak today in the peninsula of the "model of Genoa". The last section of the bridge, approximately 1 km long, was laid at the end of April and since the finishing works and safety tests have followed one another to allow its final inauguration. About ten days ago, 56 trucks weighing 44 tonnes each, for a total of around 2,500 tonnes, tested the strength of the bridge. © Fabio Ferrari, AP

A concert of men and women who worked on the site is organized at the foot of the new bridge in Genoa, Italy, on July 27, 2020 before its official inauguration. An absence, however, will weigh heavily on the ceremony of August 3: the families of the victims refuse to participate and will meet ten days later to mark the second anniversary of the tragedy. The bridge is expected to be open to traffic on August 4 or 5 after clearing the platform and props erected for the official opening. © Piero Cruciatti, AP

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