ROME – Nearly two years after a highway bridge in Genoa collapsed and killed 43 people, workers moved the final piece of a replacement span into place Tuesday in a milestone hailed by Italy’s premier as a symbolic show of unity and hope amid the coronavirus emergency.
As church bells tolled and fog horns blared, the central chunk of roadway was hoisted into position above now-abandoned homes and businesses lining the dry Polcevera riverbed.
The installation of the final segment marked the completion of structural work to reunite two sides of Genoa, but the bridge's actual reopening is several months off.
Premier Giuseppe Conte made a rare outing from Rome to attend the ceremony, following stops Monday in Lombardy, the region hardest-hit by