GENOA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th July, 2020) Italy's Liguria region has started civil proceedings claiming compensation of damage caused by the alleged mismanagement of motorways by the Autostrade per l'Italia company (ASPI), which also temporarily holds the concession to run the new Genoa bridge, regional head Giovanni Toti said on Monday, commenting on traffic disruptions on the city's roads.
The disruptions have been caused by maintenance work on the motorway network in Genoa managed by ASPI.
"Today, waiting for some response to our repeated requests, starting from the formal notice with the request for a working group to estimate the damages and from the complaint filed with the prosecutor's office, to the order of the president of the region signed more than two weeks ago, we have decided to formally initiate the civil proceeding for damages," Toti said, as quoted by the press office of the Liguria region.
The new Genoa bridge has been completed but has not been made operational yet since the question of who is going to manage it is still to be settled. ASPI, which was responsible for the Morandi bridge management when it collapsed in 2018, has so far retained the concession, but Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte gave the company an ultimatum saying it must present a proposal ensuring public interest, otherwise its concession would be revoked. The issue has caused a major dispute among the authorities and the public.
Ligurian authorities insist that ASPI must not retain the management of the bridge.
"It will be neither a short nor an easy path the first formal acts of which will start today. Some requests for access to the documents to the company that holds the concession and to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport will be sent, in order to know in detail what we do not know until now ... Then we will go on in the light of these documents, which we will formally require from the concession grantor and the concession holder, who now have the agreement among themselves on which the region [of Liguria] has no say," Toti said.
An ASPI delegation met with the government last week. The final decision on the concession has not been made yet. While the Five Star Movement insists on stripping ASPI of the concession, its ruling coalition partner, the Democratic Party, is calling for caution given the possibility of a multi-billion compensation claim against the state on the part of ASPI, controlled by the Benetton-led Atlantia group.
The Morandi bridge collapsed in August 2018, killing 43 people and destroying the homes of more than 600 residents of Genoa. ASPI held the toll road license and was responsible for its maintenance.
The new Genoa Bridge was built in less than two years, a record time for Italy.
