Riccardo Morandi

General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge, 1962
Maracaibo, Venezuela (2013 photo).

Viadotto Polcevera, 1967
Genoa, Italy (2010 photo)

Wadi el Kuf Bridge, 1972
Bayda, Libya (2004 photo)

Morandi was born in Rome. After his graduation in 1927, Morandi gained experience in Calabria working with reinforced concrete in earthquake-damaged areas. On his return to Rome to open his own office, he continued with his technical exploration of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures and embarked on the design of a series of novel cinema structures and bridges. His numerous later works include his work on the Fiumicino Airport (Rome) in 1970, and Pumarejo bridge (Colombia) in 1974.

Morandi was appointed professor of bridge design both at the University of Florence and the University of Rome, became a Fellow of the "Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce" (FRSA) in 1963,[2] and get a honorary doctorate in architecture by Technical University of Munich (T.U.M.) in 1979.[3]

Morandi's cable-stayed bridges are characterised by very few stays, often as few as two per span, and often with the spans constructed from prestressed concrete rather than the more-usual steel.[4]

Although these bridges are often impressive, they are less economic than bridges with multiple stays and have therefore been of little influence on other engineers.[5] Bridges by Morandi have proved to require extensive maintenance and repairs over the years to pass bridge safety inspections, and cables embedded in concrete are difficult to inspect.

On his General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge in Venezuela - where the cables of the stays are not covered with prestressed concrete (as instead intended from the initial project, and optimal for Morandi)[6] - several exposed cables snapped from rapid corrosion, and all the stay-cables were replaced just 18 years after construction.[7]

In 2016, Ponte Morandi in Genoa (Polcevera Viaduct) had been described as a "failure of engineering", with escalating maintenance costs to keep it safe.[8] In reality since the 1970s Morandi acknowledged, and reported, the incorrect structural response of his Genoa bridge and the related safety risk, mentioning an unexpectedly fast corrosion as a possible reason for the problems, and requiring corrective work.[9][10][11]
Pier number 9 of the bridge collapsed on 14 August 2018, causing 43 fatalities. The other two stayed-piers remained standing, as did the other eight non-stayed piers. The cause of the collapse was still under investigation more than one year later.

Morandi's similar but smaller Wadi el Kuf Bridge, in Libya, during October 2017 was closed for 2 days for safety reasons after inspections identified potential fractures in the bridge (After the alert, road transport engineers inspected the bridge and said that it needed only emergency maintenance and was safe; then was open again for light traffic, while local security officials are stopping heavily-loaded trucks from crossing in groups).[12][13] Similar security alert follow in August 2018, but about this not other specific information is available about the bridge status (if closed or still open, exactly structure problems).[14]

Major works (bridges only) by Morandi is shown below:[15]

Ponte di San Niccolò
1949 - Florence, Italy

Ponte Morandi (Toscana)
1953 - Vagli Sotto, Italy

Paul Sauer Bridge
1956 - Eastern Cape, South Africa

Ponte Amerigo Vespucci
1957 - Florence, Italy

Ponte Bisantis
1960 - Catanzaro, Italy

Kinnaird Bridge
1960 - Castlegar, Canada[16]

General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge
1962 - Maracaibo, Venezuela[17]

Ponte Giovanni XXIII
1964 - Sabaudia, Italy

Viadotto Ansa del Tevere
1967 - Rome, Italy

Viadotto Polcevera
1967 - Genoa, Italy[18][8]

National Unity Bridge (es)
1970 - Guayaquil, Ecuador[19]

Wadi el Kuf Bridge
1971 - Libya[20][5]

Laureano Gómez bridge, also known as Pumarejo bridge (Colombia) (es)
1974 - Colombia

Lake Polyfytos Bridge (Servia Bridge)
1975 - Kozani, Greece

Viadotto Carpineto
1977 - Potenza, Italy[21]

Ponte Costanzo
1984 - Ragusa, Italy[22]

• Morandi was also involved in the construction of the Powerline crossing of Messina Strait.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Riccardo Morandi.

• Riccardo Morandi at archINFORM
• Riccardo Morandi at Structurae
• Short biography (in Italian)