Genoa bridge collapse: Italy's populist government demands operator rebuilds bridge and surrounding buildings at own expense

Italy’s government has demanded the country’s biggest toll-road operator rebuild the collapsed motorway bridge in Genoa at its own expense.

The country’s Transport Ministry opened an investigation on Thursday into infrastructure company Autostrade per l’Italia, after a section of the Morandi Bridge collapsed on Tuesday, killing at least 38 people.

Autostrade has been given 15 days to show it has met its contractual obligations in relation to the structure. The company said it had made regular, thorough safety checks on the motorway bridge.

If the justifications provided by the company are judged inadequate, Rome would consider it a breach of concession terms, and the company could be fined up to €150m (£134m).

The Transport Ministry also said it wanted the company to rebuild the bridge at its own expense, as well as pay to restore buildings damaged by the collapse.

Italy’s deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio, said the state would have to take over Italy’s motorways if concession-holders could not do the job properly.

The search for survivors entered a new phase on Friday, as rescuers used heavy equipment to remove a large vertical section of the collapsed motorway, clearing a new area to investigate.

Officials say 38 people were killed and 15 injured and prosecutors say 10 to 20 people may be unaccounted for. The death toll is expected to rise.

More than 600 people were evacuated from their homes below the bridge over fears remaining spans of the structure could collapse.

Officials have decided the buildings will be demolished, as it would be too dangerous to leave them in place.

Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the reasons behind the bridge collapse and have yet to publicly identify the cause.

Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has declared a state of emergency for Genoa, one of Italy’s busiest ports, whose main land corridor with southern France has effectively been severed.

One expert, Antonio Brencich at the University of Genoa, had previously called the 50-year-old bridge “a failure of engineering”. Other engineers, noting its age, said corrosion and decades of wear and tear from weather could also have been factors in the collapse.

Italy’s ruling populist coalition has threatened to break EU budget rules if required, to repair infrastructure and ensure there is no repeat of the disaster.

A spokesman for the European Commission rebuffed any suggestion European spending rules were limiting action by the Italian government, saying Rome was getting €2.5bn from EU coffers for investments in network infrastructure for the period 2014-2020.

Earlier this week it emerged one of Italy’s two governing populist parties wrote off safety fears about the bridge, with a statement on the Five Star Movement website in 2013 dismissing warnings of “the imminent collapse of the Morandi Bridge“ as a “favoletta,” or children’s fairy story.

Additional reporting by agencies