Bridge vulnerabilities and collapses: the Italian experience
Pier Giorgio Malerba
Abstract
Many recent collapses concerned old bridges, but also modern ones, often having the same age, the same types of materials, and the same technologies. Therefore, it is crucial to analyse the errors and vulnerabilities highlighted by these failures and understand their causes to improve design, construction technologies, inspection, and maintenance criteria and avoid malfunctions and collapses in the future. Among the collapses of recent history, that of the viaduct over the Polcevera River in Genoa has been one of the most severe in terms of the number of victims, the relevance of the bridge, and economic repercussions. General information about the bridge is summarised, and the activities of forensic engineering carried out after the collapse are shortly reported. The paper concludes by presenting initiatives undertaken by the Italian Government to thoroughly control and verify existing bridges and plan the renewal of the national infrastructural network.