On 14 August 2018 at 11:35 AM, a relevant portion (about 243 m) of the viaduct over the Polcevera river in Genoa collapsed, killing 43 people. The bridge was designed in the early 1960s by Riccardo Morandi, a well-known Italian engineer, and opened to the public in 1967. The collapsed part of the bridge essentially comprised an individual self-standing structure spanning 171 m and two simply-supported connecting Gerber beam systems, each spanning 36 m from the self-standing structure to the adjacent portions of the bridge. This paper aims to reminisce the complete story of the bridge, from the Italian construction boom in the 1960s to some of the issues that soon arose thereafter: the strengthening intervention in the 1990s, the subsequent structural monitoring and, finally, the strengthening project never brought to fruition. Potential reasons for the collapse are discussed, together with some of the possible inadequacies of the bridge, its maintenance and loading history based on critical reflection, comparison with specific features of bridge construction practice today and results obtained using numerical models with different levels of refinement. Since the entire matter (specifically the debris) was considered classified by the investigating magistrate in the immediate aftermath of the bridge collapse, this work is based entirely on publicly available material.

A numerical modeling approach to capture the behavior of the various elements of older reinforced concrete (RC) frames in Italy is developed. It uses available experimental data to calibrate an approach that accounts for the strength and stiffness degradation of the members. The effects of smooth reinforcing bars on the hysteretic behavior and the overall flexural deformation capacity of members are considered. The means of accounting for strength and stiffness degradation in exterior beam-column joints is also studied and calibrated to the available experimental test data. The performance of the proposed modeling approach for older RC frames in Italy is then appraised by comparing the predictions with experimental results for two different three-story frame specimens tested both statically and pseudo-dynamically. The benefits of using the new modeling techniques for the existing RC frame structures instead of more traditional approaches is also highlighted.