TERAMO. A construction defect which, according to the experts, «contributed in a predominant and predisposing manner to the triggering of collapse mechanisms of the elevation structure».
The super expert report ordered by the court photographs the reality of another of the many structures that in the Italy of the Morandi bridge end up in courtrooms. In this case at the center of the investigation is the Collerenti bridge, between Bellante and Sant’Omero, on the Salinello river. The failure occurred at the end of December 2022 and in fact it was a near tragedy only because it happened at night and therefore with a notable reduction in traffic which meant that there were no cars in transit at that moment.
The appraisal arranged with the formula of the evidentiary incident by the investigating judge Roberto Veneziano was drawn up by the engineers Gianfranco Totani of the University of L’Aquila e Danilo Ranalli of Sulmon, who yesterday afternoon in a long and detailed hearing at the hearing illustrated the contents of the report. Starting precisely from that construction defect. «The structure that defined the hydraulic shoulder on the right», they wrote, «presented design defects, determined by reduced thicknesses of the foundation and elevation constituent elements and construction defects due to interruptions in continuity in the concrete castings». The technicians have reconstructed all the various steps of the work carried out between 1963 and 1966 – and for which they claim it was not possible to find documentation on the state of the work at the time starting from the static testing – underlining how over the years it has undergone effects of climate change, in particular regarding the phenomenon of precipitation.
«The general increase in temperatures», they wrote, «reduces the frequency of precipitation but makes it more unpredictable, giving rise to intense and short-lived rains that often evolve into extreme climate events. The satellite images highlight a significant variation over time in the path of the river rod immediately upstream of the bridge in question: the hydraulic right curve of the riverbed surface is accentuated considerably, eroding the bank on the Bellante side. The phenomenon of undermining at the base of the bridge structures originated from the first years of the work’s life and progressed with the growth and transformation of the erosive action of the Salinelo river”. The work carried out over the years, the experts claim, was aimed at overcoming those defects found in the foundation”. Writing in this regard: «It is important to underline the weight that in this historical period the word “cost” has compared to the second “benefit”: the two terms today are certainly not comparable and economic availability unilaterally determines the choices that a the managing body must now carry out its actions solely in terms of containment of the emergency rather than prevention”. According to the experts, even the transit of heavy vehicles may have accelerated “the time required to reach unstable conditions”. In the prosecutor’s file Greta Aloisi there are 10 suspects including technicians from the Civil Engineering and the Province and the former president of the institution Diego Di Bonaventura. The alleged crime is the collapse of buildings. The documents now return to the prosecutor who will have to decide whether to dismiss or ask for indictment.
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