MILAN, June 6, 2020 – Webuild (formerly Salini Impregilo) and Fincantieri are nearing the completion of Genoa’s new bridge with the start of the next phase of construction: the pouring of a concrete slab along the deck to enable it to support the road pavement. They began the operation this evening after the installation of the deck in record time, with the structure becoming a new fixture in the port city’s skyline. Technicians and tradesmen have kept up the quick pace of work even as they approach the end of the project. Work progresses without pause on various fronts thanks to careful coordination across the site with the aim of delivering the bridge to Genoa and its residents by early summer. Work is done in full respect of the latest safety measures.

The pouring of the 8,000 cubic metres of concrete along the deck’s base will begin at either end of the structure. It will then work its way towards the centre. It will also be done round the clock to reduce the amount of time needed to do it. Once the base is completed, work will then start on giving the bridge over the Polcevera Bridge its definitive feature. There will be the installation of guardrails and glass and solar panels along its sides, a waterproofing system, a final layer of asphalt and the lighting and internal systems. There will also be the placing along the deck of 18 light posts, each 28 metres in height. A load test will then be performed to prepare the bridge for traffic.

Work on the deck’s base will start immediately after the completion of a complex operation that will set the deck on its final and permanent level: about 26 centimetres lower than where its sections were installed. Inside the deck, work is also underway on its technological heart that will make the bridge energy self-sufficient and house all the systems that will power the structure, gather data, and manage water drainage.

Webuild is advancing quickly towards the end of the project thanks to a fast-track model that saw people work in parallel at more than 20 stations across the site. With work on the first foundations beginning on June 25, 2019, the structure was completed in less than a year as more than 1,000 people worked on it at any given day at the peak of the construction activity. Since April, the smart and innovative project has been bathed by Webuild with the magic of tricolour lighting on its 18 piers and along its entire length. It has become an iconic image throughout the world with tricolour laser beams illuminating the bridge above its deck, highlighting the distinct Made in Italy spirit that can also be found in the infrastructure sector.

In 114 years, the group has built bridges and viaducts in 285 projects for a combined total of 946 kilometres across the globe. In the United States, it is completing the replacement to the Gerald Desmond Bridge, the second tallest cable-stayed bridge in the country and a critical upgrade to the Port of Long Beach in California, a vital hub in the U.S. trade system. In Australia, it built the first cable-stayed curved railway bridge in the country, the crowning achievement of a viaduct for the new Sydney Metro Northwest line.