page_title: Ponte Morandi
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Ponte Morandi / History / Construction
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Il Presidente Saragat, in piedi sull'auto scoperta, percorre il grande viadotto applaudito dagli operai.
context_page_description: Ponte Morandi, officially Viadotto Polcevera, was a road viaduct in Genoa, constructed between 1963 and 1967 along Italy's A10 motorway over the river Polcevera, from which it derived its official name. The bridge is widely called "Ponte Morandi" after its structural designer, the noted engineer Riccardo Morandi.
  The bridge was an engineering and architectural landmark since its construction. It connected Genoa's Sampierdarena and Cornigliano districts across the Polcevera valley. It also provided a critical artery of European route E80, linking Italy and France.
  When a 210 metres section of the viaduct collapsed during a rainstorm on 14 August 2018, 43 people died — leading to a yearlong state of emergency in the Liguria region, extensive analysis of the structural failure and widely varying assignment of responsibility.
  The remains of the original bridge were demolished in August 2019. The replacement bridge, the Viadotto Genova-San Giorgio was inaugurated in August 2020.
context_section_description: The viaduct was built between 1963 and 1967 by the Società Italiana per Condotte d'Acqua, costing 3.8 billion Italian lire and opened on 4 September 1967. It had a length of 1,182 metres (3,878 ft), a height of 45 metres (148 ft) at road level, and three reinforced concrete pylons reaching 90 metres (300 ft) in height; the maximum span was 210 metres (690 ft). It featured diagonal cable-stays, with the vertical trestle-like supports made up of sets of Vs: one set carrying the roadway deck, while the other pair of inverted Vs supported the top ends of two pairs of diagonal stay cables.
  The viaduct was officially opened on 4 September 1967 in the presence of Italian President Giuseppe Saragat.
caption: President Giuseppe Saragat at the inauguration, on 4 September 1967
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