Notes on the bridge that collapsed in Italy

It was in 1967 that the Morandi motorway bridge in Genoa, Italy was opened. Last week it collapsed, killing at least 38 people. Also in 1967 an eight-lane interstate highway bridge was opened in Minneapolis, US. That collapsed in 2007, killing 13 people. Tony Barber in FT points out that the two tragedies are linked, part of the decaying infrastructure scourge in most advanced economies.

Wreckage of the Morandi motorway bridge in Genoa, Italy (photo by Handout / Vigili del Fuoco / AFP)

It’s part of what feeds President Donald Trump’s repeated plaint that it’s an “embarrassment” how US infrastructure in many cases resembles “a third-world country”.  Back during the first presidential debate he had said, “We have a country that needs new roads, new tunnels, new bridges, new airports, new schools.”  Specifically he spoke to how badly American airports like LaGuardia compare to sparkling new ones in China.

In the stereotype-breaking movie Crazy Rich Asians, along similar lines the female protagonist compares Singapore’s Changi airport to the one she has flown from in New York: “I can’t believe this airport has a butterfly garden and a movie theater. JFK is just salmonella and despair!”

While the western world continues to buckle at the challenge of increasing public spending on infrastructure, elsewhere monies are being tendered by China, especially with its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which President Xi Jinping calls the “project of the century”.

But as Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad said about cancelling multi-billion dollar projects in his country that were part of BRI: “It’s all about pouring in too much money which we cannot afford, we cannot repay… With that debt, if we are not careful we can become bankrupt.”

If other governments reach similar conclusions about BRI would China proffer fairer terms? Meanwhile over in Genoa remaining pillars of the Morandi bridge can be heard creaking. The whole of it may have to be demolished, and soon. It used to be a main thoroughfare between Italy and France.