INFRASTRUCTURE
GENOA SAN GIORGIO BRIDGE
The highly-anticipated motorway bridge in Genoa finally opened to regular traffic, nearly two years after the collapse of its predecessor, Ponte Morandi.
T
he Viadotto Genova-San Giorgio, also known as Genoa San Giorgio Bridge, is now opened to regular traffic. Designed by renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, the 1,100-metre-long concrete and steel viaduct carries four lanes of the A10 motorway across the Polcevera River in the northwestern city of Genoa. The Genoa San Giorgio Bridge is the replacement for its predecessor, Ponte Morandi, which collapsed during a heavy rainstorm on 14 August 2018. The tragedy, one of the worst infrastructural failures in modern Italian history, claimed 43 lives, injured more than a dozen, and left hundreds homeless. The design and build of the new US$220 million replacement bridge over the Polcevera River and the area of Val Polcevera was completed in less than two years following round-the-clock construction.
28 November-December 2021 | www.b-i.biz
“Its rapid reconstruction aims to become a model for the renovation and adaptation of Italian infrastructure with a high social, economic and strategic significance,” said Piano’s studio Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Described by the studio as an “urban bridge”, the bridge’s deck is supported by 18 slender reinforced concrete piers spaced 50 metres apart except in the central section where they are separated by 100 metres. Each of the piers has an elliptical section designed to allow the light to “slip” on the surface and help mitigate the impact on the neighbourhood below. The piers support a steel and concrete deck that is isolated by a system of support devices that are designed to protect the structure from seismic activity. According to Piano’s studio, the underside of the deck is curved to be reminiscent of the form of a ship. “From an architectural point of view, the form described by the deck, which
