Ponte Morandi, Spea consultants ‘do new tests on the finds’

(ANSA) – GENOA, 08 APR – Carry out “new load tests”, with also a new appraisal if necessary, to quantify the resistance of “any structural element, whether collapsed or not collapsed” and of the “structural elements of the bridge”. This is what was supported by Spea consultants Paolo Riva, Giovanni Ferro and Roberto Roberti who today began to illustrate the conclusions of their consultancy for the collapse of the Morandi bridge (14 August 2018, 43 victims). This evidence would document, according to the experts, “the high level of safety still existing in the non-collapsed structural elements”. According to the consultants, during the evidentiary incident ” incontrovertible evidence was acquired that not only was the collapse triggered by a localized situation, completely different from the other parts of the structure (collapsed and not collapsed) and not related to them nor correlateable, but also that all the other parts of the viaduct structure, although affected by surface degradation, did not present appreciable reductions in resistance”. And therefore “they not only satisfied the standard checks, but presented large safety margins, so as to allow us to exclude that, for these parts, there could be any risk of collapse”. According to the Spea experts, the Polcevera “collapsed due to the breakage of the strands of the primary cables at the top of the south side tie rod on the Genoa side of Pila 9, as a result of a very high level of corrosion, with the loss of 45% of the section”. An “anomalous” level of corrosion caused by construction errors “concealed” even by those who carried out and followed those works. (HANDLE).