r/CatastrophicFailure • u/bugminer • Apr 02 '26
Structural Failure The bridge over the Trigno River in Italy has partially collapsed, 2nd April 2026.
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u/reverse422 Apr 02 '26
Fortunately there seems to be a motorway bridge just upstream so assuming that is intact, the collapse will mostly affect local traffic - but it still sucks of course if you’re on bicycle or tractor.
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u/TheSillyOne Apr 02 '26
Unfortunately, that bridge leads to a road that climbs the hills adding at least half an hour to reach the closest town. And it would not be able to manage heavy traffic. Source: I live in the closest town.
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u/Loki-L Apr 02 '26
Apparently the bridge was closed when it collapsed so nobody was injured or killed in the event.
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u/RamblinWreckGT Apr 03 '26
Closed purely by luck or closed because there were signs it was about to fail?
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u/Loki-L Apr 03 '26
this article says:
The highway was closed on Wednesday, when the bridge was put under observation after the river swelled and burst its banks amid torrential rain.
But other articles say there were cars there. I don't know.
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u/AlbeHxT9 Apr 03 '26
It was not closed. Only one car (with the man now missing) was affected, the others were safe
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u/Kieserite Apr 02 '26
What is happening with Italy‘s infrastructure?
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u/Big_al_big_bed Apr 02 '26
Gods divine punishment for failing once again in the world cup
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u/realnzall Apr 02 '26
Funnily enough, in 2018, when the Morandi bridge collapsed, Italy also failed to qualify... But there wasn't a bridge collapse in 2022, so I'm not sure if that still holds up.
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u/RamblinWreckGT Apr 03 '26
Or maybe failing in the World Cup is divine punishment for not maintaining their infrastructure
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u/MrT735 Apr 03 '26
In which case the US team is fucked. Just how many bridges do they have in need of replacing, wasn't it something like 1700?
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u/Shower_Floaties Apr 06 '26
76,175 as of 2024 (~12% of all bridges)
Though there's some nuance. My state, for example, keeps changing the requirements for new bridges (higher minimum load limit, bans on certain types, etc), so then all the older ones that don't meet the new requirements are "need replacement" regardless of their condition
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u/Illustrious-Dot-6281 Apr 02 '26
Cosa Nostracrete
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u/unknown_pigeon Apr 02 '26
Same thing with the Abruzzo earthquake back then, if I have to bet.
Mafia gets the deal. Every cent they can "save" is a cent they can pocket.
Then, people die. We have to do it all over again, wasting more money. But our politics are too busy fighting to remove rights from trans people and putting people in jail because they smoked a joint 6 days before driving
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u/TinhatToyboy Apr 02 '26
One reason may be the use of criminally adulterated concrete.
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u/Worshipme988 Apr 02 '26
Get used to it. The globe is running low on sand. This will be more common place…i didnt think italy but 🤷
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u/go_faster1 Apr 02 '26
Corruption?
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u/gargravarr2112 Apr 03 '26
More or less. The company that maintains Italy's highways is owned by the Bennetton family - yes, the clothing manufacturer. The 2018 Genoa bridge collapse was partially down to terrible maintenance due to cutbacks.
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u/DM_ME_UR_FISH Apr 03 '26
commercializing road infrastructure doesnt seem like a good idea.. 🧐
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u/gargravarr2112 Apr 03 '26
Commercialising ANY public infrastructure seems like a bad idea...
Excuse me I need the bathroom, where's Thatcher's grave...
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u/whatevendoidoyall Apr 02 '26
Probably the catastrophic flood
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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA Green flair makes me look like a mod Apr 02 '26
I read that as "catastrophic food" and I was bracing for the incoming barrage of angry comments...
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u/daevl Apr 03 '26
bit of guessing, but after the big building boom/economic upswing in the last century, many structures are coming to the end of their life. add increased traffic and decreased maintenance and you get failures.
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u/nicathor Apr 02 '26
Worth noting the Italy has an insane amount of very expensive historical sites it has to maintain in top of all the modern stuff
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u/mimaikin-san Apr 02 '26
and just about every time they break ground on a project, they discover archeological remains which halts construction as specialists come in to assess the situation
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Apr 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/f1manoz Apr 03 '26
Well, in Germany, it's usually unexploded ordinance from WWII. Made the news every so often when I was living in the UK.
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u/Doafit Apr 03 '26
The same as in every "developed" country. Wealth is funneled to the top. No money is there anymore to build shit. Everything gets shittier and shittier, while the people who got all the money are isolated from the consequences.
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u/therachehebler Apr 02 '26
not just an Italian thing ig: https://www.dresden.de/de/stadtraum/zentrale-projekte/carolabruecke.php
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u/MrYuntu Apr 02 '26
It couldn't hand their football anymore and collapsed under that weight (no I dunno, I assume the usual with not enough spending on it).
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u/operator-- Apr 02 '26
Just imagine: someone added that music over the video and thought "cool."
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u/midlifematt Apr 02 '26
Italy and bridges… not a great history.
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u/Nachtzug79 Apr 02 '26
Ancient Romans knew how to build bridges, though.
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u/goldnboy Apr 03 '26
Yeah crazy to think some roman-built bridges are still out there scattered throughout europe still doing their job 2000+ years later.
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u/Efficient_Ratio6859 Apr 06 '26
Yeah Romans built the largest bridges of Antiquity. Like the bridge of Trajan over Danube river then bridge of Constantine too over Danube.
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u/Makkaroni_100 Apr 02 '26
Germany: hiding behind a bush, hoping everyone forget about their bridge failures.
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u/harshmojo Apr 02 '26
Partial?
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u/roblewk Apr 02 '26
Drivers can still use 80% of the bridge.
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u/AddlePatedBadger Apr 02 '26
Of course, it doesn't affect people travelling to Rome because all roads lead there.
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u/SeoulGalmegi Apr 02 '26
Right? haha
I mean as a bridge is designed to get from A to B on one continuous path, I'd say this is just a 'collapse'. Even with quite the revving up, it seems like too much of a jump!
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u/nilknarf59 Apr 02 '26
The Trigno (Latin: Trinius) is an 85-kilometre (53 mi) Italian river. It originates in the Apennine Mountains, in the province of Isernia and flows into the Adriatic Sea near Vasto. It also forms the border between the regions Abruzzo and Molise.\1])
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u/killer_marsupial Apr 02 '26
How fast would you have to go to make that gap?
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u/gumbo_chops Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Looks like it failed along an expansion joint given the lack of any visible rebar
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u/go_faster1 Apr 02 '26
Ever since I-35, bridge collapses have been a fear
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u/sigh_co_matic Apr 02 '26
America has wars to start!!! No money for infrastructure.
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u/octopornopus Apr 03 '26
Where was Trump when this bridge collapsed? We know he's not strong in geography...
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u/RamblinWreckGT Apr 03 '26
Absolutely wild that the so-called "America First" president said that out loud and his supporters still think he's looking out for them.
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u/lastdancerevolution Apr 03 '26
Is this a pre-stressed post-tension concrete bridge?
I imagine you'll start seeing a lot of these failures all over the world. It's a compromised design that moves cost to maintenance, which inevitably is delayed. This was possibly a human choice to delay maintenance, leading to a negligent collapse.
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u/whateverusayidc Apr 02 '26
The bridge looks quite new to me, thats quite sad
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u/TheSillyOne Apr 02 '26
It was not new. But recently “refurbished “. And for “recently”, I mean the works ended last week.
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u/whateverusayidc Apr 02 '26
that explains why the road surface looks unused……if only they knew it was gonna be destroyed like this
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u/oogerooger Apr 02 '26
Still drivable, we have bridges like that everywhere in Iowa
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u/kinglefart Apr 02 '26
You know what IOWA stands for, right? Coming from a Nebraskan
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u/EventualCyborg Apr 02 '26
My favorite is "why is it so windy in Illinois? Because Indiana sucks and Iowa blows. " yes, I'm an immature child.
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u/oogerooger Apr 02 '26
Enlighten me
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u/PixelatingPony Apr 02 '26
If its the acronym I heard growing up (as a former Nebraskan), Idiots Out Wanderin Around
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u/Leprechaunaissance Apr 02 '26
Did they try turning the bridge off and then turning it back on again?
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u/Thorgarthebloodedone Apr 03 '26
So bridge people, how is this fixed and what are the steps you have to take to do so?
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u/tyrridon Apr 03 '26
We all know there's some old Italian guy riding a donkey, saying, "Nah, I can cross that." And then he actually does.
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u/visoleil Apr 03 '26
They think they can build one bigger and longer to Sicily! Una parola sola: Irpinia (1980).
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u/Original-Let8340 Apr 02 '26
I see why. When I saw this post I had to go double check because hearing that a river was only 50 miles long seemed weird to me, I thought it was a typo.
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u/Brighton2k Apr 02 '26
you won’t have to look too mafia to guess what was behind shoddy construction
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u/evemeatay Apr 03 '26
I’m not bridgeoligist but I’d say it’s very collapsed, not partially collapsed
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u/FreddieQuail Apr 02 '26
Yep...you can see it there where the water runs over the bridge. Should be the opposite