“Autostrade per l’Italia’s top management must resign,” Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said Wednesday in a post on Facebook. “And given that there have been serious breaches, I announce that we have activated the procedures for the possible withdrawal of the concessions and for sanctions of up to 150 million euros (US$170 million),” he said.
“If they are not able manage our highways, the state will do it,” Toninelli said.
At least 37 people were killed, Ansa newswire reported, when a section of the 1,100-meter (3,600-foot) long viaduct gave way following heavy rain around midday on Tuesday. The road was built in the 1960s and sat on thin pylons as it crosses a river, railroad tracks, and buildings carrying traffic through the heart of Genoa.
Autostrade management
Similar calls on the management of Autostrade to step down and threats of possible withdrawal of its license to operate the country’s highways came from the deputy premier Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini, heads respectively of the ruling coalition’s partners Five Star Movement and League.
Speaking to reporters in the southern Calabria region on Wednesday, Salvini also said that Italy will invest in the 2019 budget law all the needed resources to improve the country’s infrastructures regardless of the European Union budget constraints. On Tuesday, hours after the collapse, he said that there can’t be a tradeoff between the citizens’ safety and the fiscal rules.
Atlantia was not immediately available to comment on the minister request for the top management’s resignation or on the possible revoking of management license.
In a statement late on Tuesday, Autostrade said it’s “fully committed to evaluate the best solutions to rebuild the viaduct in the quickest possible time in a secure and efficient way.” The company expressed sorrow for the victims and committed to help “institutions” understand the cause of collapse.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and key members of his cabinet are in Genoa to hold meetings and monitor rescue operations..
“We have a duty to plan an extraordinary measure to monitor the state of infrastructure across the country,” Conte told reporters in Genoa on Tuesday.