Ponte Mondi

Designed by engineer Roman Riccardo Morandi, It is part of the same series of two other
bridges made from the same designer, the bridge over the Bay of Maracaibo in late 50s and
collapsed in '64 because of an oil tanker hit the deck and one in Libya.

It is actually two bridges which have had similar problems to those of the bridge in
question, probably because of the construction characteristics, as well as the construction of a
viaduct, It designed by the same Morandi 70s near Agrigento, currently closed for corrosion
problems and possible structural failures.

Riccardo Morandi (1 September 1902 – 25 December 1989)

-was an Italian civil engineer best known for his innovative use of reinforced
concrete and prestressed concrete, although over the years some of his particular cable-stayed
bridges have had some maintenance trouble.

Amongst his best-known works are the General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge, an 8 km (5 mi) crossing
of Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela; a similar cable-stayed bridge in Genoa commonly known
as Ponte Morandi (officially Viadotto Polcevera), which partially collapsed in 2018 for reasons
under investigation; and the Subterranean Automobile Showroom in Turin.
The Collapse

On Aug. 14, 2018, Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy, collapsed, sending vehicles and tons of
rubble to the ground 150 feet below and killing 43 people.

According to Angelo Borrelli, Civil Protection Department chief, the collapse took
approximately 36 cars and three trucks down with it. Motorists on the bridge weren’t the only ones at
risk; apartments and houses built under the bridge were crushed or had to be evacuated. As hundreds
of volunteers and professional emergency workers searched the wreckage for people, still-hanging
sections of the bridge creaked ominously overhead.
The Structure

It is a structure made of pre-stress concrete with regard to the deck while the stays, namely the
inclined elements who have the task of supporting the deck, they are steel, with tension cables
not pretended, places with strands of the concrete-lined file.

At the level of impact on the urban environment, the impact is definitely noticeable on some
houses in Via Fillak, in particular on some balconies and a pillar resting on the roof of a house.
This testifies that, only for these factors, the structure as it was conceived, with squat pillars,
thick in some cases even more than 1,50 m, see those who overlook Via Fillak,, nor would not
exceed the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment), its VAS( Strategic Environmental
Assessment).

The tower are made, according to a unique technique, the inverted tripod balanced. It is a
structure that since the early 90s gave many stability issues, with numerous interventions of
consolidation, both for the part relating to the slab, both as regards especially the tie rods. a

They were in fact inserted, due to the corrosion also and above all by virtue of proximity to the
sea, New Forestays external steel alongside the original cables immersed in concrete.

Indeed, we can see, as the figure shows us, a typical example of a modern cable-stayed bridge,
exactly as it does now for the road and rail bridges, where the stays, they are ropes or, as almost
always it happens steel cables, I am no longer a very large step, or even individual, as in
Morandi, but in a fan and more focused, with the pitch which can vary depending on the design
choice.
This fan-shaped arrangement allows to have a distributed load on the slab in a uniform manner,
with a greater tensile stress assumed by the cables and less weight to encumber the scaffold. It is
in fact always preferable to have a larger number of stays, then a step of reduction of the inclined
elements of the steel, instead of having thick cables, squat which do not guarantee a uniform
distribution of concentrated loads on the insole, forcing the deck to a load surplus, and especially
in particular atmospheric conditions such as those Genoese, subject to wind, saline action.

At the end of the 90s, so the bridge had so maintenance costs which were almost 80% of
construction costs, which means that it was pretty much the end of its useful life with many years
in advance.

The bridge, in spite of everything, It was considered safe otherwise it would have been
disqualified, It was not foreseeable in the near well. There has been talk of a lightning, in fact a
powerful electric discharge, that would strike just before the collapse, at approximately 11 30
about but it certainly is not the cause, It could only be very distantly a small spark between the
many.

Today we talk about a lifetime in the ordinary conditions of a modern bridge 50 years but also
beyond in some cases, in any case it is arrived to the limits of a possible substitution. The new
technical regulations on construction, NTC 2018 who recently replaced the NTC 2008 provide
interventions seconds fact the highest safety standards, monitoring analogously to the Eurocodes,
which should integrate with our policies by 2023.

The Causes

The main cause of this defect, according to some research it is essentially due to the mistake of
the viscous deformation calculation, ie the effects of corrosion of the structure in the course of
time, anticipated at least 25 years compared to the normal situation of a bridge, which should last
at least ordinary condition 50 years. Some historical masonry bridges, however made with
material having totally different characteristics, also last 150, 200 years without any need for
maintenance.
The big structural defect is essentially due to the realization of the tie rods covered with
reinforced concrete. Broadly, without getting too technical, the logic, theory of reinforced
concrete, dating back at the end of '800 substantially includes the assumption of compressive
forces from the concrete, while tensile stresses would be recruited by the reinforcing bars,
Available in various diameters.

The difference of prestressed concrete, applied for bridges of large span than normal concrete is
given by the prestressing of reinforcing bars, However immersed in concrete, in the case of
prestressed concrete, used for large spans bridges where the material is most stressed, the
situation is more complex.
 Culminating
Activity
In
Statics on Rigid
Bodies
Submitted by:

PACURE, MARK BRYAN P.

LACANARIA, JOSHUA

CABERIC, LOVEL

BUSTILLO, CRIZA JANE

BSCE – 2A

Submitted to:

ENGR. DIOSDADO J. LESIGUEZ