In Genoa, after twenty months, the east and west banks of the Val Polcevera come together again.
The launch of span 19 of the new viaduct was completed just a few hours ago: the 1067 meters of track are completed. The sirens of the shipyards accompanied the final phase of the operation. A surgical operation compared by many to a delicate suture. To remedy a very deep scar in the heart of Liguria and all of Italy - especially of the relatives of the forty-three victims. The scar will remain, essential, of steel, at nineteen heads. Designed and donated to Genoa by Renzo Piano.
"It is not a party - declared the archistar - but it is a work that is completed with great pride."
Present together with the Minister of Transport Paola De Micheli, the mayor Marco Bucci and the governor Giovanni Toti, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, without exceeding his enthusiasm, confirms the tone of Piano reiterating that "The wound of Genoa cannot be completely healed because there are forty-three victims and we do not forget. The judgments of responsibility that arose from that tragedy have not yet been completed and must be completed. "
In the course of his speech, however, Conte is keen to point out how, in these times of national pain, that of Genoa represents "a symbolic construction site for the whole of Italy: it is the construction site of Italy that knows how to get up, that rolls up its sleeves, it does not let itself down, it does not allow itself to be overwhelmed. "
After the removal of the rubble of the old Morandi, the construction site encountered several obstacles (the discovery and disposal of asbestos, the burning of a battery) but still kept open, 19 hours a day: a thousand people at work even during the covid-XNUMX emergency (when a worker tested positive, every containment measure was taken, in full compliance with common safety). And since this morning that unbroken steel wire is proof that it was worth it.
Pietro Salini, CEO of Impregilo, co-responsible for the result - and from the policy of moving forward despite everything - says he is very satisfied, but does not let his guard down. Indeed, he takes the opportunity to address his prayers to the institutions that work alongside him:
«I ask you by getting down on my knees: the country needs a great plan, the Conte government's plan, like the Marshall plan, to get it started again. A great message goes out from Genoa ».
And Genoa in fact sends the country a message that is clear, one of hope but also of solicitude. Maybe the work will be hard, day and night, and we will probably have to handle dangerous materials. But the result, as it turned out, is within our reach. Stubbornness is in the Italian DNA. Let's use it, and as west and east on Polcevera we will return to embrace each other again.
