\u00a0Italy\u2019s biggest toll-road operator came under heavy stock-market attack on Thursday and the government said it could impose a heavy fine or revoke its concession over a bridge collapse that killed at least 38 people.<\/p>\n
An 80-metre-long section of the bridge, part of a motorway linking the port city of Genoa with southern France, gave way on Tuesday in busy lunchtime traffic, sending dozens of vehicles into free-fall.<\/p>\n
Autostrade per l\u2019Italia, part of Milan-listed international toll-road group Atlantia \u00a0and owned by the Italy\u2019s Benetton family, operated the motorway. It says it made regular, thorough safety checks on the 1.2 km-long viaduct, which was completed in 1967 and overhauled two years ago.<\/p>\n
At the disaster scene, cranes moved away chunks of rubble as rescue teams searched for survivors. Genoa\u2019s chief prosecutor, Francesco Cozzi, said 10-20 people were still missing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can keep going for another 48 hours in the hope of still being able to find someone,\u201d said Pietro Cosola, technical director overseeing the removal of rubble.<\/p>\n
The government has rounded on Autostrade, saying it could revoke its concession as it had failed to ensure the viaduct\u2019s safety, though investigators have yet to identify the exact cause of the collapse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe options we\u2019re looking at are the full revocation, the revocation of just the A10 section or a penalty, but a 150 million euro ($170 million) penalty is too low,\u201d Deputy Transport Minister Edoardo Rixi told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Under the terms of the concession Autostrade can be fined up to 150 million euros.
\nAtlantia shares fell by as much as 25 percent at one point after being indicated down in pre-open trade by as much as 50 percent. Shares were later down around 22 percent.<\/p>\n
Shares in other toll-road firms such as SIAS (SIS.MI) and ASTM (ATMI.MI) also fell, after Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said the state would have to take over the country\u2019s motorways if concession-holders could not do the job properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not possible that someone pays a toll to die,\u201d Di Maio said. \u201cThose who were supposed to do the maintenance work did not do it properly. That bridge should have been closed before this tragedy happened.\u201d
\n\u201cThe profits that these companies make as monopolies anger many people … a lot of money should have been invested in security, but instead it went towards dividends.\u201d<\/p>\n
A government source suggested Italy may seek to fine Autostrade rather than withdraw its concession because the latter could involve a long legal fight and risk the government being ordered to pay compensation to the company.<\/p>\n
Shipping industry sources said the bridge collapse, which severed the main artery feeding Genoa\u2019s Voltri container terminal, had yet to impact on port operations but was likely in coming months to ripple through the wider supply chain<\/strong><\/p>\n A spokeswoman for Denmark\u2019s AP Moller Maersk, which owns the world\u2019s no. 1 container shipping line, said: \u201cReaching Genoa will remain challenging in the coming period but main connections from\/to Vado and main inland markets will not be affected.\u201d<\/p>\n Experts and those who lived near the 50-year-old bridge have said the structure began to encounter problems within two decades of its construction. Pieces of concrete were falling off the bridge as long ago as the 1980s, one resident said.<\/p>\n Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte declared a state of emergency for Genoa, one of Italy\u2019s busiest ports, whose main land corridor with France has effectively been severed.<\/p>\n Autostrade said it had relied on world-leading experts when making tests and carrying out inspections on the bridge and that these checks had provided reassuring results. A source close to the matter said Autostrade per l\u2019Italia would hold an extraordinary board meeting next week following the disaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0Italy\u2019s biggest toll-road operator came under heavy stock-market attack on Thursday and the government said it could impose a heavy fine or revoke its concession over a bridge collapse that killed at least 38 people. An 80-metre-long section of the bridge, part of a motorway linking the port city of Genoa with southern France, gave …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":132059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-te-public"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\u201cThese outcomes have formed the basis for maintenance work approved by the Transport Ministry in accordance with the law and the terms of the concession agreement,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n