The new motoway bridge in Genoa

Ponte Morandi

As you probably know, on August 14th 2018 a real catastrophe happened in Genoa. A part of a motorway bridge, called Ponte Morandi, suddenly collapsed causing the death of 43 persons. The trial against persons who were responsible for the bridge is still opened.

Ligurian motorways

What’s more that accident caused the beginning of numerous controls of the conditions of motorway bridges and tunnels. In Liguria, they are about 5 thousand motorway bridges and now they all have to be controlled and in many cases, they should be restored. More info about the actual security situation of Ligurian motorways I gave you here.

Actual situation

After Ponte Morandi collapsed, the crucial, motorway connection was interrupted. The bridge was a part of A10 motorway which connects Italy with France. Without the bridge, all drivers had to use other motorways to move from west to east and vice versa or they had to exit the motorway in Genoa and drive in the city.

The New Bridge

After many discussions and different ideas about how should be a new bridge built, it was decided to demolished completely Ponte Morandi and build the brand new one to replace it.

In order to this, the last two cable-stayed pillars of Ponte Morandi were demolished using 500 kg of explosives on 28 June 2019. The complete bridge was removed, along with multiple damaged houses in the surrounding area.

The project of the new bridge was designed by Genoese, worldwide famous architect Renzo Piano and the construction started on April 2019. The bridge will be 1076 meters long and will have 18 elliptical piers made of reinforced concrete. The constructor, PERGENOVA S.C.p.A. ensures that it will be an extremally sustainable and “smart” bridge. It will be equipped with a robotic and sensor automation systems for infrastructure monitoring and maintenance and with a special dehumidification system to avoid the formation of salt condensation and to limit corrosion damage.

Now the work is still in progress. The construction site is opened 24/7, also during Italian bank holidays. If you are interested in how the work goes on you can check it here. The webcams are registering the progress all the time. On this website, you can also get all detailed information regarding the project and its construction.

Opening date?

And now, the most important question … When they are going to finish it and when it will be possible to move from east to west and vice versa without deviations? The most recent, official declaration of the mayor of Genoa, Marco Bucci, is that the bridge should be open for traffic at the end of May 2020. He said also, that the whole construction should be finished at the end of March 2020 but after that date, the construction will need some security tests and finishing touch works.

 

So if nothing will change, at the end of May 2020 it will be possible to pass through Liguria using the new A10 motorway bridge. Stay tuned!

[UPDATE]

Because of the coronavirus lockdown, the completion of the bridge had to be postponed. Now the new date of the opening of the new bridge is programmed for the end of July 2020.

[UPDATE]

It’s official, the bridge will be opened on Monday 08/03/2020.

 

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