re: Italian bridge collapses in Genoa, killing at least 30

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what happens when I-10 collapses in lake Charles? people have been calling that condemned for years

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I drive to the Houston area regularly and never go over that bridge anymore. Either the 21O by pass or I use 190 to Mauriceville.

It's rated worse than the one in Minnesota that fell a few years ago. Too expensive for La to fix but we can waste billions on Medicaid fraud and not car. It won't fall with me on it.

If you go on Google Maps and enter Genoa Italy you see the layout of the city. Scroll in and the bridge is there, over the 'creek' that is probably a raging torrent in snowmelt time. There is no reason for that bridge to have been built that high: not for the apartment buildings under it or the rail lines, etc.

That high way, though has massive tunnels to the west and east of it. It was a limited access highway to get through the city. All other bridges are at grade and part of the city grid system.

The tunnels are impressive, I can't think of any North American city that has that approach to moving traffic in mountains.

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It's rated worse than the one in Minnesota that fell a few years ago.

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what does this even mean?

that bridge is not going to fall. its functionally obsolete but its not in danger of falling.

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Eventually this will start happening more often unless we start updating our infrastructure.

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This bridge was just refurbished two years ago

Looks like some shotty work

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There were also concerns the Italian mafia could have contributed to the bridge's collapse by their construction companies being involved in maintenance work - including shoring up the foundations. 'Mafia-related companies are known to have infiltrated the cement and reconstruction industries over the decades and prosecutors have accused them of doing shoddy work that cannot withstand high stress,' Canada's Globe and Mail wrote. 'The Mafia is notorious for nabbing reconstruction contracts after earthquakes and cutting corners.' Franco Roberti, then head of Italy's anti-Mafia directorate, said in 2016 that mafia-related companies should not be able to participate in earthquake reconstruction work for that reason.

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This is Italy after all.

This is from that Daily Mail article someone linked earlier. Pretty interesting read. It quoted some locals saying they would pray every time they had to cross the bridge, they called it the wobbly bridge.
For years, engineers had been saying it would be cheaper to scrap it and build a new one instead of repairing it to make it safe. Yikes.

LINK

Now reporting 39 dead on this bridge collapse alone.

this read talks about the relationships among the monied folk of Italy, the sister bridge in Libya that was closed, and the relationship between this collapsed toll road and the Colors of Bennetton.