As a result of the collapse of the bridge in Genoa, dozens of people were killed - the exact causes of the catastrophe are still unknown. However, criticism has already reached the engineer-designer who designed the bridge, reports Tagesspiegel.

On Wednesday morning, Italian authorities confirmed information that as a result of the collapse of the 100-meter stretch of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, which is part of the A10 motorway, at least 25 people were killed (at the moment the death toll has reached 37. - Prim. red. ), among them, presumably, three children. 16 people were injured of varying severity. Rescue work continued at night, the German edition.

As a result of the collapse of cars and trucks fell from a 40-meter height - about 30 cars were buried under the rubble of the bridge. "The real scale of the disaster is still impossible to assess - some zones of collapse are not yet available for rescuers. The viaduct crossed, including a railway track and an industrial zone in the west of Genoa, "reads the article.

As the journalist writes, referring to the Italian Corriere della Sera, over the past five years in Italy, ten bridges collapsed. "The reason, first of all, is one: reduction of investments in infrastructure - save, including, on repair and maintenance of bridges".

"The Morandi Bridge, named after the design engineer Ricardo Morandi, almost from the very beginning was a problematic design. It all started with the fact that the cost of construction, started more than 50 years ago, significantly increased compared to the value pledged. Then, constant improvements and unscheduled repair measures were required, "the author says..

The Italian media quoted a report written two years ago by Antonio Brencic, a construction expert from the University of Genoa. In his opinion, the construction of the bridge needed serious repair as early as the 1980s. He assumed that it would be cheaper to build a new bridge than to constantly spend money on repairing the old one, writes the author of the article.

"The Morandi Bridge has always been considered a work of engineering. But in fact, he was an example of unsuccessful technical thought, "Brancic said in an interview with Italian television on Tuesday.

According to the expert, mistakes were made in calculations related to the sedimentation of reinforced concrete, which led to the fact that the road surfaced in the waves back in the 1980s.

According to Tagesspiegel, in 1964 in Venezuela in the collision of an oil tanker with pillars, another bridge, designed by Morandi. "It turned out that when designing the bridge, such a scenario was not taken into account. It is reported that in addition to the Venezuelan and Genoese project Morandi was built another bridge - in Libya ".