Tajik President Emomali Rahmon yesterday expressed his condolences to his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella over the collapse of a motorway bridge near the port city of Genoa.
In his message, President Emomali Rahmon said he was deeply saddened to learn about a bridge collapse tragedy in Genoa.
President Rahmon expressed his deepest sympathy and sincere condolences to President Mattarella, the families and friends of those who die, and the Italian people.
Meanwhile, international media outlets say that at least 39 people were killed and 15 injured when a major motorway bridge collapsed in Genoa, in northern Italy on August 14. More than 400 people were evacuated from buildings near or below the still-standing section of the bridge. At least two people were missing.
According to Independent, the Italian CNR civil engineering society said structures dating from when the Morandi Bridge was built had surpassed their lifespan. It called for a “Marshall Plan” to repair or replace tens of thousands of bridges and viaducts built in the 1950s and 1960s. Updating and reinforcing the bridges would be more expensive than destroying and rebuilding them with technology which could last a century, the society said.
The 1.2km-long bridge was completed in 1967 and overhauled in 2016. The motorway it carries is a major artery from northern Italy’s industrial centers to the Italian Riviera and to France’s southern coast.
It was the second deadly disaster on an Italian motorway in as many weeks, with a tanker truck carrying highly flammable gas exploding after rear-ending a stopped truck and getting hit from behind near the northern city of Bologna on August 6. The accident killed one person, injured dozens and blew apart a section of a raised eight-lane motorway.
