Infrastructure Minister
Graziano Delrio said Tuesday that the Himera bridge in Sicily
must be demolished due to damage from a recent landslide and
ordered an inquiry into the entire affair that some have blamed
on careless maintenance.
Pylons holding up the Himera viaduct on Sicily's A19
motorway between Palermo and Catania cracked and buckled after
it was hit by a landslide on Friday.
Delrio, who said it would take up to two years to rebuild
the bridge, said an inquiry would "shed light" on the collapse.
He spoke during a visit to the site where engineers and
geologists from the ANAS transportation body were inspecting the
damage.
Delrio spoke to reporters after his initial inspection,
which also included civil protection inspectors.
A controversy was sparked after the accident when Erasmo
D'Angelis, head of the government's mission on hydrogeological
instability, criticized ANAS and Sicily's regional government,
suggesting they did not use funds earmarked by the government
for stabilizing the A19.
He added that the regional government should have
intervened "ten years ago".
"There's only shame, in the fact that funds to secure the
landslide and city weren't used," D'Angelis said.
Sicily's Governor Rosario Crocetta immediately said he
would send a formal protest to Premier Matteo Renzi over
D'Angelis's comments.
"My government doesn't have a damn thing to do with the
failure of the pylon. Instead of gossiping and taking money from
the regions, Rome should give us the funds," Crocetta said.
"I didn't find one cent when I came into office on December
8, 2012. The first funds we received at the end of last year,
about 70 million, when we need at least two billion for
hydrogeological instability," Crocetta said.
D'Angelis cited the landslide as "proof not only of the
lack of monitoring, care and ordinary maintenance in the most
fragile territory of the region most at risk, but also of
sloppiness, disorganization, neglect, abuse, and very little
interest in public debate over the very serious problem of
hydrogeological instability".
The affected motorway has been closed since Friday,
effectively splitting Sicily in half, and adding an hour to the
normally two-hour drive between Catania and Palermo, as
motorists must use an alternate road bypassing the viaduct.
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