Italy declares year-long state of emergency after bridge disaster

Pierami, an engineer, had driven over the bridge many times before.

Authorities have confirmed at least 39 people have died and 15 were injured after the bridge collapsed.

Italian civil engineering association CNR reportedly said structures as old as the collapsed Morandi bridge had exceeded their lifespan. Autostrade operates many of Italy’s toll highways, according to The Associated Press.

The incident is the latest in a string of bridge collapses in Italy, a country prone to damage from seismic activity but where infrastructure generally is showing the effects of a faltering economy.

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 United States to close it during renovation.

Toninelli called for top leaders at the company to resign. He said he had begun the process of cancelling the company’s contract and imposing fines of some $170 million.

But Autostrade defended its overall safety record.

The bridge sees some 25 million vehicles every year, and a 2011 report by an Italian highways company said that the bridge had been suffering from degradation.

“There can not be such slaughter without guilt”, said Matteo Salvini, minister of the interior, one of two deputy prime ministers and the most powerful politician in the country. He tweeted that those responsible will “pay dearly”.

Matteo Pierami drove across the bridge with his wife and child, aged two months, nearly an hour before it collapsed.

“The Morandi Bridge was constantly undergoing maintenance: it was affected by serious corrosion problems related to the technology that Morandi himself had patented, but stopped using, and which proved to be disastrous”, he told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Tuesday. Vehicles plummeted some 150 feet into an industrial area of the northern maritime city, some landing on a railway line and others hitting a riverbed.

Locals tweeted they had warned Italian authorities about the state of the landmark for months. Police say there was a violent cloudburst at the time.

Italy’s infrastructure minister says apartment buildings might have to be destroyed because of the Genoa highway bridge collapse.

They later posted on Facebook about being caught up in the collapse.

Rescuers continued to search through tons of concrete slabs and steel for survivors or bodies.

Italian media reported that Samuele’s toys, including a Spiderman football, were found inside the wreckage of the family’s vehicle.

At least two more people have been pulled out today.

“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”.

The Pope offered a prayer for the victims and their loved ones in a public address at St Peter’s Basilica.

A Treasury source said Tria was already discussing a big overall public investment plan with European Union officials, worth a total of 150 billion euros over 10 years.

During the press conference, the prime minister took aim at toll-road operator Autostrade, a unit of Milan-listed Atlantia group, which operated the bridge as part of a stretch of the A10 motorway it manages.

Salvatore Lorefice, 58, a pensioner who lives a few hundred meters (yards) from the bridge, said cement had fallen off the structure as early as the 1980s when he worked at a warehouse directly under the bridge. “I looked up and saw the bridge pylon fall”, he said.

As the coalition, which consists of Five Star and the hard-right League party, called for heads to roll, it emerged that in 2013, Beppe Grillo, the founder of Five Star, had opposed plans to build a new motorway that would have alleviated pressure on the Morandi bridge.