14 votes

'Dozens dead' in Italian bridge collapse

Posted by Neverland
Tags: italy.genoa, infrastructure, bridges, deaths, roads, motorways, engineering.civil, disasters.structural, collapses.bridge, source.9news au
https://www.9news.com.au/world/2018/08/14/21/21/motorway-bridge-collapses-in-italy-s-genoa

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Title
Genoa bridge collapse: Death toll climbs as Italy's transport minister slams 'unacceptable' collapse
Published
Aug 15 2018
Word count
983 words

5 comments

  1. [2]
    Neverland
    (edited )
    Link
    This is a tragic loss of life. I've seen many people talking about corruption in Italy as the cause of this, and this may be as this bridge had work done in 2016. However, this can happen in any...

    This is a tragic loss of life. I've seen many people talking about corruption in Italy as the cause of this, and this may be as this bridge had work done in 2016. However, this can happen in any country which has stopped taking care of their infrastructure.

    Before and After images found on the r/europe thread

    US report on all bridges

    Minnesota I-35 bridge collapse

    Canadian Infrastructure report

    6 votes
    1. lol
      Link Parent
      I find this graph from the BBC article especially telling

      I've seen many people talking about corruption in Italy as the cause of this...this can happen in any country which has stopped taking care of their infrastructure.

      I find this graph from the BBC article especially telling

      1 vote
  2. [3]
    cjbest
    Link
    The pictures are horrific. You are correct that this can happen anywhere. We have had minor infrastructure collapses in Quebec that have injured people. My spouse works in municipal asset...

    The pictures are horrific. You are correct that this can happen anywhere. We have had minor infrastructure collapses in Quebec that have injured people. My spouse works in municipal asset management in Canada. Getting all departments on board with new asset management requirements and getting budget commitments for proper long term planning is still difficult. Both councils and departments tend to favour short term fixes at lower cost vs five or ten year (or longer) spending plans.

    4 votes
    1. [2]
      Neverland
      Link Parent
      I just found something interesting in a HN comment.

      I just found something interesting in a HN comment.

      the main takeaway is that it was build in the sixties with then-novel and not fully understood material engineering practices which then forced frequent and expensive extraordinary repairs, to the point that it would soon have been economical to just demolish and rebuild it.

      2 votes
      1. azulez
        Link Parent
        It's so difficult for society to just bite the bullet on things like this up until it's too late.. See global warming, for example.. I wonder if the bystander effect plays a part as well. Everyone...

        It's so difficult for society to just bite the bullet on things like this up until it's too late.. See global warming, for example.. I wonder if the bystander effect plays a part as well. Everyone looking at a bridge that's about to fall down going, 'someone should do something about that.'

        Actually addressing issues like this requires a strong leader willing to push such a disruption before it happens on its own, as well as engineering and maintaining functional bypasses for when such a major disruption of infrastructure occurs - hopefully done in a planned, by hand sort of way, before 'mother nature does it for us'.

        2 votes