Ponte Morandi, the experts: an intervention on pier 9 would have prevented the collapse

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It is the day of the expert reports in the Genoa trial relating to the collapse of the Morandi bridge (which took place on August 14, 2018, causing 43 victims). But it is also that of Giovanni Castellucci, the former CEO of the Atlantia group and of Autostrade per l’Italia, who appeared in the courtroom for the first time.

Project modified to speed up time

The problems of the Morandi bridge started right from its construction when – said Massimo Losa, the expert of the judge for the preliminary investigations, heard during the hearing – for pier 9 (the one that later collapsed) the project «was modified to speed up the times» and «the static test was not carried out» and «there were no controls from the works management». An “intervention on pile 9 – he added – would have prevented the collapse”.

These construction flaws, Losi clarified, caused the cables to corrode. Corrosion that was known to the viaduct manager as early as 1975, when engineer Zanetti di Spea, first, and then engineer Morandi himself sounded the alarm.

Conflicting corrosion estimates

The expert then recalled how “the corrosion estimates made in 1993 (the year in which the reinforcement work was carried out on pier 11), with reference to piers 9 and 10, which were respectively equal to 8.6% and 20, 54%, are in clear contradiction with the one reported in the retrofitting project (dated 2017, ed) generally equal to 10%-20%, without distinction for the two batteries, which would imply the complete arrest of the progress of the corrosion phenomenon in a quarter of a century, a clearly absurd and unacceptable assumption».

Castellucci in the classroom

Castellucci, before entering the courtroom, declared: «I am present out of respect for the Tribunal and for all the parties to the trial. My defenders had already anticipated that I would not miss my contribution to ascertaining the truth, which is very different from the theories of the prosecution spread in recent months”.