• August 14, 2018, the Morandi bridge collapses: 43 dead
  • Ponte Morandi, a rescuer: "I will never forget the faces of frightened people"
  • Genoa, those who went to work, those on vacation: the many lives lost in the collapse of the Morandi Bridge
  • Genoa, the inspectors: "The bridge has crooked and then collapsed. Collapse due to several contributing factors"
  • Bridge designed by the engineer Riccardo Morandi, it was built between 1963 and 1967
  • Morandi bridge collapses on the A10 in Genoa: 35 confirmed dead

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August 03, 2020

43 names, read one after the other. They are the victims of the Morandi Bridge, which collapsed on August 14 two years ago. Their names resonate in the tensile structure set up for the ceremony, which today inaugurates the new structure symbol of the rebirth of the city. The new Ponte San Giorgio, built in less than 24 months since that tragic morning.

In the front row, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Conte and the President of the Senate, Elisabetta Casellati.

Mattarella first met privately in the Prefecture with the Committee of family members of the victims of the collapse of Ponte Morandi. The family members had been invited to attend the inauguration ceremony, but they had opposed the refusal, because they believed that the event took a too festive address. After knowing the situation, Mattarella imposed a sober ceremony and the private meeting was born. At this point, the Committee agreed that the names of their dead relatives should be read on the bridge.

The inauguration of the highway viaduct, 1,067 long over the Polcevera stream, takes place just under two years after the collapse of the bridge designed by Riccardo Morandi and built between 1963 and 1967 and costing 43 dead.

At the inauguration ceremony, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (wearing the mask with the flag of San Giorgio), the President of the Senate Maria Elisabetta Casellati and the President of the Chamber Roberto Fico as well as several ministers, including the owner of Infrastructure Paola De Micheli . On the bridge also the governor Giovanni Toti, the mayor and commissioner for reconstruction Marco Bucci and the architect and life senator Renzo Piano, the 'dad' of the new structure. 

Before the ceremony, the notes of Fabrizio De Andre's famous 'Creuza de ma' rang out in Valpolcevera, starting from the speakers installed on the new Genova San Giorgio bridge, in a pouring rain that is baptizing the inauguration of the infrastructure. Silence on the viaduct while the song, reinterpreted by 18 great artists of Italian music, rang out.

Casellati: symbol of rebirth of the country
"The Ponte San Giorgio is the symbol of the rebirth of our country. Genoa must become a model: without bureaucracy and without constraints, work and development is created". This was stated by the President of the Senate Elisabetta Casellati. "In Genoa, Italy won and it rolls up its sleeves. We start from here and from the courage of those who worked without stopping even in the midst of a pandemic. The pain for the 43 victims can never be canceled, but today this bridge rekindles the future of the city and of Italy as a whole ", concluded the president.

The collapse and the investigation
At 11.36 am on August 14, 2018, under an incessant rain, 250 meters of the Morandi bridge - the highway viaduct that connects the A7 with the A10 - collapsed together with the support pile, number 9. Six weeks later , the decree-law n. 109 ("Genoa Decree") which confers very wide powers on the Commissioner for reconstruction: the mayor of Genoa, Marco Bucci, is chosen to fill the position. 

The Genoa Prosecutor's Office, which immediately after the disaster had opened an investigation for multiple manslaughter, manslaughter and culpable attack on transport safety, as well as failure to comply with anti-accident regulations, makes the suspects known: 73 are natural persons and companies . Among them heads of Aspi, Spea, MIT officials and the public works board. 

The Genova San Giorgio bridge will be open from August 5th.

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