2 years after the tragedy that took the lives of people, this is the new 'Morandi' bridge in Genoa

The Genoa highway bridge "Morandi" became a symbol of the consumed infrastructure for Italy. The new San Giorgio Bridge now instead testifies to Italy’s potential.

" We worked non -stop : 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said a construction company manager, Webuild. "The only day the construction site closed was for Christmas." Even in the worst phase of the Corona pandemic, construction work continued at full capacity. Now the port city celebrates the inauguration and with it Italy.

On August 14, 2018 parts of the Morandi Bridge nearly 1200 meters long quite frequented as the main axis of traffic in Genoa suddenly collapsed. Cars and trucks that were traveling over it fell into the depths, 43 people lost their lives as a result. Many residents had to leave their homes near the bridge and the important A10 motorway has since been blocked.

Just 13 months ago, the remaining structure of the Morandi Bridge exploded on June 28, 2019. A few weeks after this collapse, the famous architect Renzo Piano presented the first idea in his city for the construction of the new bridge. The few remaining parts of the Morandi Bridge were soon dismantled, but some houses also had to be demolished. In 2019, reconstruction began. "We built the bridge within a year, it is true that the construction of such a bridge would normally have taken years," the 82-year-old architect Piano told La Republika newspaper with joy.

At the end of April the basic construct was ready

The collapse of the bridge in Genoa was imprinted as a national catastrophe in the memory of Italy because of its size. The pain from the disaster was great. Now the new beginning must radiate positively. The Ponte San Giorgio Bridge is named after the city's patron saint. In the inauguration ceremony (03.08) were about 500 guests, among them personalities from politics, church and society. President Sergio Mattarella was present as well as Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who proclaimed Genoa as the shining example of a fresh start for the whole of Italy following the deadly Corona pandemic.

A week before the inauguration, a concert was held near the new San Giorgio Bridge. Many of the relatives of the victims stayed away from the holiday. For them, the commemoration of those who lost their lives in the disaster is in the foreground./DW/