Marco Bucci preface

The concrete realization of what over the past months has been rebranded the “Genoa model” now lies before our very eyes. And it can be found in that just over one kilometer of concrete and steel that now reunites two parts of Genoa, a city wounded by the tragic collapse of the Ponte Morandi on August 14, 2018.

The city’s relationship with this bridge, a gem of engineering and technology, the fruit of the insight of Renzo Piano and of the meticulous efforts made by all the technicians and workers who participated in the project, for me is summed up in one particular episode that I was told about, and that concerns one of the Webuild workers.

Like many of his colleagues he is not Genoese himself, but he had the chance to spend time in our city during the months that he was engaged on the building site.

One evening after work he went to have a pizza in the Porto Antico area, one of the tourist spots in our city.

The waiter serving him, a born and bred Genoese, recognized him as someone involved in rebuilding the viaduct. “Are you one of the people working on the bridge?” he asked. “Yes, I am” he replied.
“Thank you, thank you for what you have done for our city.”

I identify with this sincere expression of gratitude.
I felt it was relevant to me when I heard the story, which I am happy to recount in these pages.

Undoubtedly, the reader will feel the great commitment to the building of this bridge and how much it symbolizes today for the revival of a city, a region, and a country. None of the people who had the opportunity to take part in this work will ever forget this experience. And I am definitely one of those. I am certain that every technician, every worker, every person who devoted their labor to making this bridge will forever hold deep inside a piece of this project. And, why not, a piece of our marvelous city too.

We will never forget what has been. We have worked hard to remember the forty-three victims of the Ponte Morandi. We want to make sure that what happened will never happen again.

Marco Bucci
Mayor of Genoa and Special Commissioner for Reconstruction