Italian bridge collapse.

Subject: Italian bridge collapse.

superunknown 15.08.18 - 11:26am

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sisfreak2017 15.08.18 - 11:30am
0gypsy0 you better not have ventured to the coast!

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mikeymk 15.08.18 - 11:34am
I blame the Russians.

Seriously though -There was a handshake deal between the Italians and Russians on scrap iron back when the bridge was built. The quality of the available steel was horrific, it was liquid rust.

The Italian car industry was nearly brought down by it, as Fiat Group cars were rotten in five years, and Lancia ended up quitting Britain due to Lancia's reputation never recovering.

It's likely the skeleton of that bridge, under the concrete, was the same stuff. Concrete structures are weakened critically once the reinforcement steel inside has corroded away, especially as the expansion of rust cracks the concrete.

The bridge has been badly maintained and had a poor reputation, so a refurbishment was done a couple of years ago - basically to paint over a lot of the cracks and holes.

I believe the steelwork inside is in a very poor state, and i believe there are people who knew it was unsafe. * +

trunking 15.08.18 - 01:01pm
Been to Genoa before. Absolutely beautiful architecture.
My sympathies. * +

obi_jon 15.08.18 - 01:42pm

@ mikeymk - 15.08.18 - 11:34am
I blame the Russians.

Seriously though -There was a handshake deal between the Italians and Russians on scrap iron back when the bridge was built. The quality of the available steel was horrific, it was liquid rust.

The Italian car industry was nearly brought down by it, as Fiat Group cars were rotten in five years, and Lancia ended up quitting Britain due to Lancia's reputation never recovering.

It's likely the skeleton of that bridge, under the concrete, was the same stuff. Concrete structures are weakened critically once the reinforcement steel inside has corroded away, especially as the expansion of rust cracks the concrete.

The bridge has been badly maintained and had a poor reputation, so a refurbishment was done a couple of years ago - basically to paint over a lot of the cracks and holes.

I believe the steelwork inside is in a very poor state, and i believe there are people who knew it was unsafe.

Not to mention the massive decrease in Italian government infrastructure spending and maintenance budgets since the 2008 financial crisis, which reduced by over 10billion euros over the last 10yrs down to 4billion euros(compared to the 14billion euros spent from 1998-2008).

If you ask me, I'd say that cutting the regulations imposed on the construction, building and other industries associated with vital infrastructure like this, as is going on in various countries worldwide, will only lead to incidents like this one increasing. I submit the building regulations that allowed dangerously combustible cladding to be applied and turn Grenfell Tower into a death trap, as a further example of this kind of thing already happening more often than it should. * +

0gypsy0 15.08.18 - 02:19pm

@ sisfreak2017 - 15.08.18 - 11:30am
0gypsy0 you better not have ventured to the coast!

No, fortunately I wasn't there, I'm still here to annoy you

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peta 15.08.18 - 02:22pm
That sucks.. oh man. * +