A joint venture between Salini Impregilo and Fincantieri Infrastructure has been given the contract to replace the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, which collapsed on 14 August, killing 43 people.
The two contractors will form a company called Pergenova to build a design by Renzo Piano, the signature architect and Genoa native who offered to design a replacement bridge after the collapse.Â
Citing a "spirit of civic duty", Pietro Salini, chief executive of Salini Impregilo, said the aim was to complete the work within 12 months of the demolition of the Morandi.
"We are in Genoa in the spirit of civic duty and, with Fincantieri, we are ready to help the city and its people," he said.
"Many of our workers on the Terzo Valico high-speed rail project are Ligurian and we want to be close to them after the tragedy that struck the city."
The bridge will have a continuous steel deck 1,100m in length with 20 spans. It will have 19 elliptical piers made of reinforced concrete, the majority of which are positioned 50m from each other. Two of the piers will be 100m from each other because of their location on the river and the railway.
Fincantieri will build the steel structures at its Genoa-Sestri Ponente shipyard, as well as at the Valeggio sul Mincio facility in Verona. Deck sections will be welded on the ground and hoisted into position using "strand jacks". The company’s Cetena subsidiary will oversee the work.
Giuseppe Bono, chief executive of Fincantieri, said: "Our expertise in the management of processes and complex products puts us in a position to carry out the best possible work in order to give the city a beautiful, functional and lasting public work within the expected timeframe."
The contract was awarded by Marco Bucci, the mayor of Genoa, who is also commissioner of the reconstruction effort.
Image: View from the west over the collapsed Morandi Bridge, Genoa (Salvatore Fabbrizio/Wikimedia Commons)
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