Mobil-mobil berjatuhan dari ketinggian 45 meter setelah bagian dari jalan layang di Genoa ambruk.
Jembatan layang di satu ruas jalan tol di dekat Genoa, Italia, ambruk dan menyebabkan mobil-mobil jatuh dari ketinggian 45 meter dan menewaskan setidaknya 35 orang, hingga Selasa (14/08) sore waktu setempat, menurut para pejabat. Tayangan video menunjukkan salah satu tiang yang menahan jembatan layang itu ambruk pada saat cuaca buruk. Mobil-mobil jatuh dari jembatan serta puing-puing tiang ke arah rel kereta dan gudang di bawahnya. Tim penyelamat tengah berusaha membebaskan orang-orang yang terperangkap di dalam kendaraan atau di bawah puing-puing. Menteri Dalam Negeri Matteo Salvini mengatakan tak kurang dari 200 anggota tim penyelamat dikerahkan ke lokasi kejadian. Ia juga menegaskan siapa pun yang bertanggung jawab akan diproses berdasarkan sistem yang berlaku. "Saya melewati jembatan layang ini ratusan kali. Sebagai rakyat Italia, saya akan menemukan semua pejabat yang bertanggung jawab, baik di masa lalu maupun sekarang. Tak bisa diterima sama sekali harus ada yang meninggal di Italia dalam kejadian seperti ini," kata Salvini. Dikhawatirkan bagian-bagian lain dari jalan layang ini akan juga ambruk dan pihak berwenang sudah memerintahkan evakuasi agar tidak jatuh korban susulan. Menteri Perhubungan Danilo Toninelli mengatakan kecelakaan ini adalah "tragedi besar" dan Prancis telah menawarkan bantuan untuk Italia. Saham Atlantia, operator jalan tol yang bertanggung jawab atas sebagian besar jalan tol di negara itu, melemah 6,3% begitu muncul berita kecelakaan.
"Ini tidak dapat diterima karena jembatan yang begitu penting ... tidak dibangun untuk mencegah ambruk seperti ini," kata Wakil Menteri Perhubungan Edoardo Rixi di Genoa seperti dikutip kantor berita Reuters.
Ambruknya jembatan penting ini tak bisa diterima kata menteri Italia.
Presiden Prancis Emmanuel Macron dalam cuitannya menulis duka untuk rakyat Italia, dalam bahasa Italia dan Prancis. Ia mengatakan Prancis siap untuk menawarkan bantuan yang diperlukan. Mengapa jembatan ini runtuh?
Jembatan ambruk pada sekitar pukul 11:30 waktu setempat (16:30 WIB) pada saat hujan deras. Polisi melaporkan bunyi keras. "Sekitar pukul 11:30 kami melihat petir menyambar jembatan," kata saksi mata Pietro M all'Asa seperti dikutip kantor berita Italia, Ansa. "Dan kami lihat jembatan itu ambruk." Saat itu kondisi macet, kata seorang saksi mata kepada televisi Italia.
Paling tidak 22 orang meninggal dalam kecelakaan jembatan runtuh ini.
Mobil-mobil dan truk terperangkap dalam puing-puing dan gedung-gedung di sekitar rusak, menurut fotografer AFP yang berada di lokasi. Satu gambar menunjukkan satu truk berada di ujung jembatan sebelum ambruk. Seberapa penting jembatan itu? Jembatan Morandi, yang dibangun pada 1960-an, terletak di jalan bebas hambatan A10, yang melintas dari kawasan Riviera Italia ke pesisir selatan Prancis. Bagian jembatan yang rusak panjangnya puluhan meter dan terbentang di atas Sungai Polcevera. Fondasi jembatan tengah diperbaiki saat jembatan itu ambruk namun struktur tetap diperhatikan, kata operator jalan tol seperti dikutip Reuters. Pemerintah baru di Italia sudah berjanji untuk menaikkan anggaran infrastruktur. Pada 2006 pemerintah Italia mengeluarkan anggaran 14 miliar euro untuk jalan namun angkanya turun di bawah empat miliar euro pada 2010, menurut data yang diperoleh Organisasi Kerja Sama Ekomomi dan Pembangunan, OECD.
Jakarta, CNN Indonesia -- Polisi Italia mengatakan Jembatan Morandi, yang terletak di sebelah selatan kota Genoa Italia, roboh akibat hujan badai yang melanda. Polisi Italia mengatakan di akun Twitternya bahwa jembatan itu roboh sekitar pukul 12.00 waktu setempat dan kemudian mengunggah rekaman video saat-saat jembatan itu roboh. CNN melaporkan bahwa dinas pemadam kebakaran Genoa telah mengerahkan banyak petugas pemadam kebakaran di lokasi.
Masih belum jelas jumlah korban manusia, luka maupun tewas, dan jumlah kendaraan yang sedang melintas di jembatan itu ketika roboh. Namun, kepala layanan ambulans setempat yang dikutip kantor berita Italia Adnkoronos menyebutkan "puluhan orang" tewas dalam insiden yang terjadi pada Selasa (14/8) pukul 11.30 waktu setempat. Dinas pemadam kebakaran Genoa juga mengatakan korban tewas kemungkinan besar akan ada dalam insiden yang terjadi ketika kota itu diguyur hujan lebat.
Seorang saksi mengatakan kepada Televisi Italia bahwa dia melihat "delapan atau sembilan" kendaraan sedang melintas ketika roboh. Dia menggambarkan suasananya seperti "kiamat". Jembatan yang melintasi sejumlah jalan, rel kereta dan sungai Polcevera, menghubungkan pusat kota Genoa dengan bandara kota itu serta kota-kota di sepanjang pesisir barat. Jembatan Morandi, atau jembatan Polcevera, dirancang oleh ahli teknik Sipil Italia Riccardo Morandi dan selesai dibangun pada 1968. Sementara itu menteri transportasi Italia Danilo Toninelli mengunggah cuitan bahwa dia "mengikuti perkembangan yang kemungkinan besar merupakan tragedi besar dengan penuh kekhawatiran. [Gambas:Video CNN] (yns/yns)
Genoa, Italy (CNN) Rescuers worked through the night to account for all of the victims of Tuesday's Morandi Bridge disaster in Genoa, as Italy's President called for a "serious and severe examination" into why the bridge suddenly collapsed.
At least 26 people died when a major section of the motorway, in Italy's northwest, partially collapsed during a heavy storm, sending concrete tumbling toward the ground, overturning cars and trapping people in the rubble.
Fire services chief Emanuele Gissi told CNN Wednesday morning that rescue operations are continuing and teams are still hoping to find people alive but that hope diminishes as time goes on.
No new survivors had been found overnight, Gissi added, but three more bodies had been discovered.
Teams with dogs are aiding the effort, but rescuers are not hearing or seeing any signs of life, he said, adding the situation around the bridge site is still dangerous.
The head of the Italian Civil Protection Agency, Angelo Borrelli, said about 30 vehicles and several heavy-duty trucks were on the affected section of the bridge when it gave way.
Destroyed vehicles, concrete and tarmac as seen from the ground below the bridge.
Images from the scene showed a mangled mass of buckled vehicles and slabs of bitumen torn up as the bridge, built in the late 1960s, came tumbling down.
One rescuer told CNN they had worked through pouring rain and winds of up to 60 kph (37 mph) to get to the victims, who he could hear screaming for help.
He said they had come across the car of one family, where a couple had been crushed. Rescuers had hoped that their child had survived but when they retrieved the body it was completely limp.
Around 440 people who lived near the bridge -- which authorities feared could crumble further -- have been moved.
As authorities worked to formally identify victims, the city started two days of mourning. The Italian and the European Union flags will fly at half-staff on municipal buildings on Wednesday and Thursday, and residents are invited to express their condolences and support for the victims and their families, the mayor's office said.
As theories spread about the cause of the collapse, Italy's President Sergio Mattarella called for a "serious and severe examination."
"This is the moment of common commitment to face the emergency, to assist the wounded, to support those affected by pain, which must be followed by a serious and severe examination of the causes of what happened," he said.
Possible causes
Local authorities initially cited heavy storms as partly to blame for the disaster but on Tuesday evening, Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced that authorities were working on the theory of "structural failure."
Lauren Stewart, director of Structural Engineering and Materials Laboratory at Georgia Tech University, told CNN that there could be issues with maintenance, explaining that there are a "huge number of bridges and infrastructure in general that's reaching this end-of-service life," as was the case with the Morandi Bridge.
"Our infrastructure is aging at a point where we have structurally deficient bridges that we know about... depending on the environment you can have components corrode.
"You can have steel corrode which can cause cracking, you can have loss of the load-bearing capacities... you can have fatigue or you can have loading and unloading -- traffic going on and off over years and years, decades even and that can eventually degrade the structures."
Destroyed vehicles, concrete and tarmac as seen from the ground below the bridge.
The Morandi Bridge, also known as the Polcevera Viaduct, was designed by Italian civil engineer Riccardo Morandi and completed in 1968.
Maintenance was "underway to consolidate it," the company in charge of Italian highways, Autostrade, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The statement goes on to say that "a bridge-crane was installed to allow maintenance works to be carried out" adding that, "the work and status of the viaduct were subject to constant observation and supervision" by their Genoa division. "The causes for the collapse will be the subject of an in-depth analysis as soon as it is possible to safely access the site."
However, locals say that the bridge has had problems for years, and that it was often attended to by repair crews, but the fixes were never long-lasting, and many in Genoa had petitioned the authorities to replace it.
Building a new bridge could take years, however, and its importance as part of the main artery connecting the south of France and Italy meant that plans to get rid of the existing structure were postponed.
Photos: A helicopter flies over the site of the Morandi Bridge collapse in Genoa, Italy, on Tuesday, August 14. Hide Caption 1 of 23 Photos: Emergency crews gather at the site of the bridge collapse. Hide Caption 2 of 23 Photos: A rescuer and a stretcher are lifted above the wreckage. Hide Caption 3 of 23 Photos: An injured man speaks to reporters near the bridge. Hide Caption 4 of 23 Photos: Two rescue helicopters land near the Morandi Bridge. Hide Caption 5 of 23 Photos: A truck is seen near the edge of a section of the bridge that collapsed. Hide Caption 6 of 23 Photos: Bystanders watch the rescue operation. Hide Caption 7 of 23 Photos: Police officers look on near the stricken bridge, Hide Caption 8 of 23 Photos: A truck is seen in the wreckage of the bridge. Hide Caption 9 of 23 Photos: A Red Cross first aid tent is set up at the disaster scene. Hide Caption 10 of 23 Photos: Rescues work among the twisted debris. Hide Caption 11 of 23 Photos: Vehicles line a part of the bridge that remains standing. Hide Caption 12 of 23 Photos: Rescuers work amid the rubble Tuesday. Hide Caption 13 of 23 Photos: The rubble from the collapsed portion of the bridge is seen from afar. Hide Caption 14 of 23 Photos: A large section of the bridge collapsed during a storm. Hide Caption 15 of 23 Photos: Emergency crews work amid the debris. Hide Caption 16 of 23 Photos: Concrete slabs crumpled on top of each other when the section of the bridge collapsed. Hide Caption 17 of 23 Photos: Onlookers view the collapsed bridge. Hide Caption 18 of 23 Photos: A rescue helicopter lands near the site of the collapse. Hide Caption 19 of 23 Photos: Emergency crews work at the scene. Hide Caption 20 of 23 Photos: A chunk of the collapsed bridge teeters atop the rubble. Hide Caption 21 of 23 Photos: Italian first responders work to locate victims. Hide Caption 22 of 23 Photos: An emergency services worker views the bridge debris. Hide Caption 23 of 23
Colin Caprani, senior lecturer in Structural Engineering at Monash University in Melbourne, said bridges "are not set-and-forget pieces of infrastructure," arguing that as the structures age, collapses like the Morandi bridge are likely to become more common occurrences.
"Many of the bridges of the developed nations are at the end of their design lives," he said. "The increasing number of collapses we are seeing in recent years is likely to worsen as deterioration, and inspection and maintenance programs continue to have their budgets reduced."
However, he added that "bridges are the safest of all major structures -- safer than buildings and dams. The risk of fatality from a bridge collapse is around 1 in 100 million per year, which is roughly 100 times less likely than being struck by lightning.
Destroyed vehicles, concrete and tarmac as seen from the ground below the bridge.
Difficult to inspect
The Morandi Bridge is made up of stay-cables, which are embedded in concrete, making them difficult to inspect for corrosion.
Anil Agrawal, Professor of Civil Engineering at the City College of New York told CNN that if there is corrosion in the concrete, water can cause a void, further corroding the cables. And if there's no easy way to inspect them, "it's a high risk system," Agrawal said. "If you lose any cable you have a catastrophe in the making."
That catastrophe was one that some Italian engineers had been warning about for years.
Antonio Brencich, engineer and associate professor of reinforced concrete constructions at the University of Genoa, expressed concern back in 2016.
Destroyed vehicles, concrete and tarmac as seen from the ground below the bridge.
"It was affected by serious corrosion problems related to the technology that Morandi himself had patented, which he had not used anymore, and which proved to be disastrous," Brencich told Italian daily La Repubblica
Genoa's Mayor Marco Bucci told CNN that the bridge collapse was "not absolutely unexpected," but said that he didn't know the reason as to why, nor was he aware of the renovations.
Agrawal said that if the maintenance operation was something to do with any of the cables, it would have been a sufficient risk to have prompted many agencies in the US to close it during renovation.
In a statement on its website on Tuesday, the Genoa Mayor's Office announced that traffic on some streets around the Morandi Bridge would be restricted.
Meanwhile Italian and French authorities are coordinating to stem the flow of trucks heading into Italy to alleviate congestion caused by the bridge collapse, the Italian State Police said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Authorities are also advising residents to avoid the highways and to just use local roads for their daily activities.
It is too soon to know why a bridge in Genoa collapsed in a horrifying disaster – but the same problems could potentially afflict other bridges, experts have warned.
Respected experts are clear that it is far too early to speculate on the cause of the bridge's collapse. But they said that a thorough investigation will be required to ensure that the full causes of the incident are known – and any similar incidents in the future are prevented.
“At this stage it is very difficult to make a solid judgement on the cause of this catastrophic collapse," said Mehdi Kashani, associate professor in structural mechanics at the University of Southampton.
Italian bridge collapses: part of highway gives way in Genoa 35 show all Italian bridge collapses: part of highway gives way in Genoa 1/35 A large section of the Morandi viaduct, of which the A10 motorway runs, collapsed in Genoa Reuters 2/35 Reuters 3/35 Rescuers at work amid the rubble EPA 4/35 Reuters 5/35 A large section of the Morandi viaduct, of which the A10 motorway runs, collapsed in Genoa AFP/Getty Images 6/35 AFP/Getty Images 7/35 AP 8/35 AFP/Getty Images 9/35 Rescue workers at the collapsed Morandi Bridge Reuters 10/35 AFP/Getty 11/35 Cars seen among the rubble Vigili Del Fuoco/AP 12/35 EPA 13/35 AFP/Getty 14/35 EPA 15/35 AFP/Getty 16/35 A large section of the Morandi viaduct upon which the A10 motorway runs collapsed in Genoa, Italy EPA 17/35 Rescuers work among the debris of the collapsed Morandi highway bridge AP 18/35 The viaduct gave way amid torrential rain EPA 19/35 The viaduct runs over shopping centres, factories, some homes, the Genoa-Milan railway line and the Polcevera river AP 20/35 Around 10 vehicles are involved in the collapse, rescue sources said EPA 21/35 A view of the collapsed Morandi highway bridge ANSA via AP 22/35 Rescue teams on the site EPA/Italian Firefighters 23/35 EPA 24/35 EPA 25/35 EPA 26/35 Rescuers at the site of the collapsed bridge EPA 27/35 EPA 28/35 Both sides of the highway fell AFP/Getty Images 29/35 EPA/Italian Firefighters 30/35 The site of a collapsed bridge EPA/Italian Firefighters 31/35 Sergio Battelli/Twitter 32/35 Rescue teams on the site EPA/Italian Firefighters 33/35 EPA 34/35 EPA 35/35 Vigili del Fuoco/Twitter 1/35 A large section of the Morandi viaduct, of which the A10 motorway runs, collapsed in Genoa Reuters 2/35 Reuters 3/35 Rescuers at work amid the rubble EPA 4/35 Reuters 5/35 A large section of the Morandi viaduct, of which the A10 motorway runs, collapsed in Genoa AFP/Getty Images 6/35 AFP/Getty Images 7/35 AP 8/35 AFP/Getty Images 9/35 Rescue workers at the collapsed Morandi Bridge Reuters 10/35 AFP/Getty 11/35 Cars seen among the rubble Vigili Del Fuoco/AP 12/35 EPA 13/35 AFP/Getty 14/35 EPA 15/35 AFP/Getty 16/35 A large section of the Morandi viaduct upon which the A10 motorway runs collapsed in Genoa, Italy EPA 17/35 Rescuers work among the debris of the collapsed Morandi highway bridge AP 18/35 The viaduct gave way amid torrential rain EPA 19/35 The viaduct runs over shopping centres, factories, some homes, the Genoa-Milan railway line and the Polcevera river AP 20/35 Around 10 vehicles are involved in the collapse, rescue sources said EPA 21/35 A view of the collapsed Morandi highway bridge ANSA via AP 22/35 Rescue teams on the site EPA/Italian Firefighters 23/35 EPA 24/35 EPA 25/35 EPA 26/35 Rescuers at the site of the collapsed bridge EPA 27/35 EPA 28/35 Both sides of the highway fell AFP/Getty Images 29/35 EPA/Italian Firefighters 30/35 The site of a collapsed bridge EPA/Italian Firefighters 31/35 Sergio Battelli/Twitter 32/35 Rescue teams on the site EPA/Italian Firefighters 33/35 EPA 34/35 EPA 35/35 Vigili del Fuoco/Twitter
But Dr Kashani said that there are a range of bridges across the world that use many of the same techniques.
"The bridge was constructed using reinforced and pre-stressed concrete about 50 years ago. There are a large number of reinforced concrete bridges in Italy, Europe, USA, and Canada with the same age, which are suffering from corrosion of reinforcement and or pre-stressing tendon."
Further investigation will be needed to know whether that helped contribute to the bridge's collapse, or if those similar bridges could ever suffer the same fate. There are a whole host of issues that could potentially be involved – from corrosion of the reinforcement in the bridge; the loads they undergo from traffic, wind and earthquakes that can gradually put fatigue on the structure; the effects of the storm that was happening at the time of the collapse; as well as work that was reportedly ongoing on the bridge.
"However, there is need for further detailed investigation to fully understand the cause of failure," he said. "The bridge engineering research community should take this seriously in their future research to improve the resilience of our infrastructure under extreme loading.”
While some of the materials and techniques used in the bridge's building are very common the design itself is relatively strange. That might limit the applicability of the dangers in this case to other bridges across the world, experts said.
“The bridge is a very unusual design, very similar to its much larger cousin, the Lake Maracaibo bridge in Venezuela, also designed by Riccardo Morandi and completed 6 years earlier in 1962," said Ian Firth a past president of The Institution of Structural Engineers, and a structural engineer specialising in bridges.
"The A-frame towers which support the concrete-encased stay cables combine with V-shaped supports below the deck to create a stiff arrangement which is not common in cable stayed bridges. This deals with potential unbalanced loads which arise due to the multi-span nature of the structure.
Some online reports have suggested that the collapse could have been caused by a strike from lightning. Such impacts can be devastating – but not enough to cause such problems by themselves, experts said.
"Whilst it is perhaps not impossible to think that a lightning strike makes a contribution to such a collapse, it is probably very unlikely to happen," said Martin Fullekrug, reader in the University of Bath’s Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering.
"Lightning could potentially contribute to a critical fatigue of material. For example, the lightning generated heat could result in evaporating water to very high pressure and produce a subsequent crack or burst of critical support material, similar to the bark of a tree disintegrating after a lightning strike."
