Genoa Bridge Collapse

On August 14th, 2018, the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy collapsed, resulting in the death of 43 people and causing significant destruction. Designed by Ricardo Morandi and opened in 1967, the bridge was a symbol of Italian engineering. However, on a rainy morning, pylon number nine disintegrated, and an 800-foot section of the bridge fell, crushing cars and buildings below. Rescue efforts began immediately, but many were already dead or seriously injured. Investigations into the collapse revealed that potential causes included corrosion of the steel cables due to high salinity levels and the bridge's aging infrastructure. The event raised major concerns about the safety of Italian infrastructure and led to criminal charges against 59 employees of the bridge's owner, including former CEO Giovanni Castelucci . Despite efforts for safety improvements, the disaster highlights the impact of negligence and cost-cutting measures in infrastructure maintenance.

00:00 Introduction to the Genoa Bridge Collapse
00:35 Design and Construction of the Morandi Bridge
01:44 The Day of the Collapse
03:42 Immediate Aftermath and Rescue Efforts
07:44 Investigation and Theories Behind the Collapse
11:18 Legal Consequences and Ongoing Trials
13:15 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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Transcript

 On August 14th, 2018, the Miranda Bridge in Genoa, Italy collapsed. The collapse sent cars and people falling 150 feet into the ground and river below. During the collapse, 43 people would be killed. So what happened? I'm Andrew, and this is History's a disaster.

Tonight we are diving into the Miranda Bridge collapse. The bridge was designed by Ricardo Miranda, so I bet you can guess where the name came from and was the longest concrete bridge in the world when it opened up in 1967. The bridge looked very much like the Brooklyn Bridge. In fact, many people in the area actually called it Brooklyn.

The bridge was made of two spans supported by three pylons and four reinforced concrete cables called stays. It was a highly innovative design when it was built in the 1960s. The main difference between it and the Brooklyn Bridge was that it only had four of these stays used to support it instead of the dozen on the Brooklyn Bridge and the cables were covered in pre-stressed concrete, the deck or roadway was also made entirely of reinforced concrete.

The bridge had very little metal in it and was actually stronger and lighter than any other bridge built at the time. It would become a symbol of Italian engineering on August 13th. What few people were left in the city of Genoa were preparing to leave for vacation and hopping on the A 10. August 15th is a major IT public holiday called.

So a lot of people had already skipped town to head out to celebrate. Now, the A 10 was the main highway that connected France and northern Italy, along with the highly important port of Genoa. So it was a highly used road. It passed through the center of town. If you're traveling anywhere north or south, you're gonna end up on this highway and passing over the Miranda Bridge.

The bridge runs over the industrial sector of town along with a river whose name I can't pronounce. It's the post ra, Poca. Veras, I don't know. Some Italian shit. Houses and railways.

The morning of the 14th starts out fairly shitty with a rainstorm, soaking the city, making driving conditions pretty nasty with very low visibility. During the rainstorm at 1136 in the morning, the bridge collapses.

Pylon number nine, disintegrates as concrete drops to the ground below an 800 foot section of the bridge breaks apart. Cars are tossed around and tumbled to the ground. 150 feet below 2200 tons of concrete fall to the ground, and when it came down, it crushed everything underneath it. Buildings and homes were lost as they were buried under tons of concrete.

The rail lines were covered in rubble. It took less than 30 seconds for the entire collapse to happen.

In the aftermath nearby, residents ran in fear, fearing that the rest of the bridge was going to come down. People trapped in the buildings and rubble were screaming for help. First responders would receive the first calls within a minute of the collapse. They arrived within 10 minutes of the first calls and described it like the scene of a bomb explosion.

Nobody could believe what they were seeing. They started looking for survivors and found car after car empty. They could hear phones ringing in the rubble as they searched. They dug through the gaps in the rubble, calling out for survivors and getting no answers. With the gaps being so narrow, they set in 44 dogs to slit through and search for people.

The dogs would find no survivors in the rubble of the bridge. However survivors would be found in the buildings and recycling factory beneath the bridge. A mother and daughter shopping at an antique store had gotten trapped in the building. When it came down, the daughter was crushed and trapped beneath the rubble.

Part of the building had come down on her legs. Her pelvis was broken in five places. Rescue workers had to dig slowly through the wreckage of the building to get to them. Working slowly. They carefully removed her from the rubble before getting her out and getting her to the hospital. Firefighters would find a survivor near pylon nine.

He was trapped in his pickup truck, 65 feet in the air, so he was not in a good position. His truck was bent into a U-shape and dangling in the air. The firefighters screamed for him not to move as they climbed the rubble by hand. To reach him, they had to anchor themselves in place before roping down to the driver.

They had to pull him out of the truck slowly. He was in immense pain with a fractured shoulder, and his whole body was one big bruise With him safely out of the truck, they had to be slowly lowered to the ground by rope. Before they could get him to the hospital, he would spend 45 days in the hospital before he was able to go home without knowing how many cars were tracked in the rock.

Trouble. They had to go through security footage of the bridge and figure out how many cars were there when it collapsed. 16 cars, two vans, and five semis were determined to be on the bridge when it went down far less than what traffic would normally have been by 4:00 PM the death toll had hit 22 with many still missing

disaster plans at nearby hospitals were started at. As the dead were transferred there, family members of the missing filled the halls as they waited for word on missing loved ones. It would take four days before everyone was accounted for. In the end, 43 people were killed. When the bridge collapsed, more than 600 people were left homeless as they had to evacuate their homes.

A state funeral was held on August 18th. For 18 victims and to honor the rescue workers and firefighters on scene trying to help survivors. Thousands were in attendance. At the S event, the other victims would have private funerals. Railways would have to be shut down due to the crash. They had to set up bus services in the area between the affected stations.

A state of emergency was declared the day after the collapse for the entire neighborhood and would last for more than a year. During this time, the remains of the bridge would completely demolished and construction on the replacement began. Construction on the new St. George Bridge would be finished during the summer of 2020.

Investigations into the collapse started almost immediately and more than a few theories were developed, but none were definitively proved to be the cause. During the collapse, witnesses reported seeing flashes of light seconds before the bridge came down. Which led to the theory that a lightning strike on the bridge led to the destruction.

There was also talk of a small landslide hitting the bridge. Now, personally, I think neither one of these, not very likely. Fatigue was issued as a possible theory. Also, it was thought that a lack of upkeep, along with increased weight loads, caused additional stress to the bridge, which led to it failing.

Back in the sixties when the bridge was built, there was not as many cars as there is now. There's something like 10 times the amount of traffic than there was in the sixties. Plus, they didn't really design things back then with the thought of durability or holding up for years on end. They also didn't know shit about long-term effects on buildings.

Durability wasn't really a big thought in designing. I. The most likely cause is corrosion that weakened the stays. Only having four stays was a major design flaw. If one of these things broke, the whole thing falls. No way the other three could hold up the bridge. It'd be too unbalanced. During different checks of the bridge, it was determined that the steel cable inside the concrete.

Was being corroded from the high salinity levels of being right near the Mediterranean Sea. There was some repair work done on some of the spans, but not all of them work on the other sections was scheduled for later in the year. And of course the repair work they did do not that great. Yeah, they reinforced some of the corroded steel cables, but they didn't fill in the concrete where shit was corroded.

So the moisture and salinity was still just creeping in and making shit worse. With shit just getting worse, the stay would've broken. With the stay broken, the roadway would've been severely unbalanced, leading for a complete failure of the entire span. The collapse also raised numerous concerns over Italian infrastructure and the safety of its bridges.

Since 20 13, 11, bridges in Italy had fallen.

In 2008, the financial crisis that rocked the global economy saw the Italians looking to cut back and save money. They chose to seriously cut back on infrastructure repair. They were being too cheap to fix known problems. They took a, oh, it's fine. Everything's fine type attitude, and more than a few shitheads said there was no possible way the Miranda Bridge would ever collapse.

Just look at it. It's made of tons of concrete and Italian ingenuity. That thing will last a hundred years. Just don't look too closely at it and ignore the obvious signs. It's aging faster than anyone expected. Yeah, fucking shit heads.

T, they Italia. The owners of the bridge at the time of the collapse came under intense scrutiny. They were being blamed for knowing about the potential for collapse and failing to do anything about it. 59 employees would end up facing criminal charges ranging from manslaughter to willfully, removing safety features in the workplace, and harming transport safety.

The biggest of these being the former CEO of Stro, Giovanni Che, he is facing charges of endangering safety on the road and willfully failing to take precautions to avoid a catastrophe if, and that seems like a big, if he's convicted, he's looking at a maximum sentence of 15 years. The trial which had been previously postponed.

It's still ongoing at this time. Currently, a judge's panel has ruled that they are not civilly liable in the collapse, meaning they have no responsibility to compensate in any of the damages caused by the bridge falling. So not sure if that bodes well for anyone facing serious criminal charges, but I'm not a lawyer and it's Italy.

So who knows how this will turn out. However, having said that, Giovanni was convicted of negligent homicide and negligent disaster in April of this year in relation to a disaster involving a bus falling off of viaduct and killing 40 people. Giovanni was sentenced to six years in prison over the accident.

So if nothing else, at least the shithead will see the inside of a jail cell for something. So maybe there's hope after all for him being convicted in this disaster.

And that was the Genoa Bridge collapsed disaster. A terrible tragedy that never should have happened and would not have had it not been for straight up greed and shithead trying to be cheap asses. Thanks for listening, and if you enjoyed the show. Please consider leaving a rating or review on your Apple Choice, and you can reach out to the show at Histories and disaster@gmail.com with questions, comments, or maybe a future show suggestion.

And don't forget to follow the show on social media at Histories and disaster and share the show. Because sharing is caring and if there was more caring in the world, maybe history wouldn't be a disaster. Thanks, Anne. Goodbye.