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| Autostrade per l’Italia Chief Executive Giovanni Castellucci holds a news conference about the collapsed Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy August 18, 2018. REUTERS/Massimo Pinca |
Italian toll-road operator Autostrade per l’Italia, a unit of infrastructure group Atlantia which managed a bridge that collapsed in Genoa this week, pledged on Saturday to rebuild the viaduct.
On Tuesday, a 200-metre section of the Morandi viaduct gave way in busy lunchtime traffic, killing at least 41 people and severing the city’s main land link with southern France.
Autostrade Chief Executive Giovanni Castellucci, holding the firm’s first news conference since the disaster, said a new bridge would be built using funds from the roughly €500m it had set aside for disaster recovery.
He added that the company, manages the section of the A10 motorway linking Genoa to the French border, has always operated correctly in its role of toll-road operator.
Castellucci added that it was premature to comment on the procedure launched on Friday by Italy’s government aimed at revoking the group’s highway concessions.
Chairman Fabio Cerchiai also told the news conference that Castellucci would remain in his position. A government minister had called on Autostrade top managers to quit over the collapse.
