The new bridge in Genoa, inaugurated on Monday with great fanfare two years after a deadly collapse, was opened to traffic on Tuesday evening. This is good news even if some believe that the measures taken to renovate Italy's dismal infrastructure are not enough. The first vehicles, journalists including those of AFP, crossed the elegant metal structure shortly after 9 p.m., nearly two years after the Morandi Bridge collapsed during heavy rains, precipitating into the void of dozens of vehicles and causing the death of 43 people.
Infrastructures in poor condition
The relatives of the victims are also struggling to turn the page: "We are still anchored in the past, we are still at the collapsed bridge and with the relatives whom we lost under the bridge. We stopped in 2018" , explained to AFP Giorgio Robbiano, 43, vice-president of an association of victims, who lost his brother, his sister-in-law and his nephew in the disaster.
This tragedy brought to light the poor condition of roads, bridges and railways in Italy. The demolition of the remains of the Morandi Bridge and the reconstruction in record time has been hailed as an example of what the country is capable of when it manages to extricate itself from its heavy bureaucracy.
"Message of confidence and hope"
"It sent a message of confidence, competence and hope. All Italian infrastructures could be like this, and live up to the standards of other European countries or even exceed them", enthuses the mayor of Genoa. , a large port city in the northeast, during the inauguration of the bridge in the presence of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
The ruling coalition between the center-left and the 5 Star Movement (M5S) pledged during the coronavirus pandemic to use infrastructure projects to revive a tattered economy, as Italy fell into its worst recession since World War II.