{"id":377911,"date":"2018-09-20T09:58:39","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T08:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/italian-officials-received-prior-warnings-of-catastrophic-bridge-collapse-in-genoa\/"},"modified":"2018-09-20T09:58:39","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T08:58:39","slug":"italian-officials-received-prior-warnings-of-catastrophic-bridge-collapse-in-genoa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/italian-officials-received-prior-warnings-of-catastrophic-bridge-collapse-in-genoa\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian officials received prior warnings of catastrophic bridge collapse in Genoa"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3 class=\"nomargin\">\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h2>Italian officials received prior warnings of catastrophic bridge collapse in Genoa<\/h2>\n<h5>\n<p>    By<br \/>\n    Allison Smith and Marc Wells<br \/>\n    <br \/>20 September 2018<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n<p>In the month since the August 14 collapse of Genoa\u2019s Morandi Bridge, it has become clear that there were repeated warnings about the dangerous decay of the bridge\u2019s structural integrity. Although minor repairs were carried out, calls from engineers and other experts for major repairs and the decommissioning of the structure were ignored by the private operator and the government.<\/p>\n<p>The most recent warning came in October 2017, when Carmelo Gentile, a structural engineering professor at the Politecnico di Milano, sent results of structural integrity tests to Autostrade per l\u2019Italia, the bridge operator, and the central government\u2019s highways agency. Gentile warned of troubling signs of corrosion or other possible damage to the southern bridge supports.<\/p>\n<p>These supports ultimately failed and collapsed a portion of the bridge, killing 43 people and making 150 residents homeless. In all, more than 600 homes were destroyed by the collapse. Countless more people rely on the major throughway in and out of Genoa.<\/p>\n<p> In an interview with the <em>New York Times<\/em> published on September 6, professor Gentile commented, \u201cProbably they [highway officials and Autostrade] underestimated the importance of the information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Autostrade responded with a statement this month claiming professor Gentile\u2019s suggestions were included in a proposal to retrofit the viaduct that was approved in June, and the company blames the Ministry of Infrastructure for months of delays in authorizing the work.<\/p>\n<p>The potential for a total collapse has been well documented, going all the way back to a 1979 report by the bridge\u2019s architect Riccardo Morandi, recommending constant&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2018\/09\/20\/ital-s20.html\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Italian officials received prior warnings of catastrophic bridge collapse in Genoa By Allison Smith and Marc Wells 20 September 2018 In the month since the August 14 collapse of Genoa\u2019s Morandi Bridge, it has become clear that there were repeated warnings about the dangerous decay of the bridge\u2019s structural integrity. Although minor repairs were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-377911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}