The Constitution bridge (in the planning stage Fourth bridge over the
Grand Canal and better known after its construction as the Calatrava
bridge) is the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Grand Canal in Venice
between Piazzale Roma and the Venezia Santa Lucia railway station.
The bridge, designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and
built using mostly steel and glass, was opened to pedestrian traffic on
the night of September 11, 2008.
The project shows an arched bridge with a span of 81 metres, a width
of 6 meters at the base and 9 at the center for a height of 10 meters at
the top; the structure is in steel, the floors in Saint-Gobain glass,
Istrian stone and Classic Gray Trachyte from Montemerlo. The parapets
are also in glass, with brass handrails. LED bulbs are installed inside
the handrails which dissipate the light beam in the glass parapets.
The bridge is 94 meters long from the steps while it has a central
width of 81 meters. The width varies from 5.58 meters up to 9.38 meters
in the central part. The height varies from 3.20 meters on the banks up
to 9.28 meters in the central part. The central steel arch, a structural
element of the bridge, has a radius of 180 metres.
The British
newspaper The Independent commented on the bridge as follows:
«An
exquisitely modern project [...] but stylistically it doesn't clash with
the scenery, helped by the fact that it is built in glass and Istrian
marble, the most used material in Venice. […] Designed by Santiago
Calatrava, the Spanish architect whose projects from Dublin to Athens
via Buenos Aires changed our idea of what a bridge should look like, the
one in Venice is very different from the works that have it made famous.
It is the essence of discretion: no network of cables, no reenactment of
harps, lyres or lutes, just a simple arrow-shaped span from bank to
bank, with no visible supports.
(The Independent)
The name
In August 2008, Mayor Massimo Cacciari proposed naming the work of the
Spanish architect (until then officially referred to using the
expression "Fourth bridge over the Grand Canal") "Constitution bridge"
in homage to the fundamental law of the Italian State, approved by the
Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, promulgated by the provisional
head of State De Nicola on the following 27 December and entered into
force on 1 January 1948, of which the sixtieth anniversary was
celebrated precisely in that year . On this occasion, the mayor also
proposed to rename piazzale Roma (a toponym assigned in the Fascist era)
with the name of the anti-fascist Silvio Trentin, noting however the
difficulties resulting from the change of a deeply rooted and well-known
name.
Previously the mayor had proposed the name "ponte de la
Zirada" to the City Council since the bridge is located at the initial
curve of the Grand Canal, formerly called zirada in the Venetian
language (in fact, the church is nearby of Sant'Andrea della Zirada, now
completely incorporated in the car terminal in piazzale Roma). The
proposal follows what was the will of the municipal administration in
the thirties to call the field in front of the Santa Lucia station campo
de la Zirada, but during the fascist period it was preferred to give a
name that recalled the centrality of power, so it took the name that
everyone by now knows, Venetians and tourists, of piazzale Roma. After
the ashlars of the bridge were laid, other hypotheses on the name had
circulated, including "Ponte delle Due Sante", in reference to the name
of the two foundations joined by the bridge, that of Santa Chiara and
that of Santa Lucia; "Ponte Sabbadino", in honor of the proto who in the
16th century conceived the idea of a new bridge over the Grand Canal in
approximately the same location.
On September 4, 2008, the mayor
announced that by decision taken unanimously by the municipal council,
the new bridge would be called "bridge of the Constitution". In common
use, instead, to indicate the bridge, the use of the name of the
designer prevailed and, therefore, the denomination "Calatrava bridge".
Premises
Until 1850 the Grand Canal was crossed only by the
Rialto bridge; within ten years the Austrians built two iron
bridges, one in front of the Gallerie dell'Accademia and one in
front of the railway station, both defined by the Venetians as "long
gorges" due to the shape that characterized them. The two cast iron
bridges, in addition to being considerably deteriorated by the salt,
excessively conditioned navigation on the Grand Canal, so they were
both replaced between 1934 and 1938, respectively by the temporary
wooden bridge at the Accademia and by the Scalzi bridge made
entirely of Pietra d'Istria, both designed by the engineer Eugenio
Miozzi (1889-1979), at the time head of the works and public
services management of the Municipality of Venice.
Over time,
the exceptional development of international tourism has often drawn
attention to the lagoon center by the most well-known and famous
designers: Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, Frank Lloyd
Wright and more recently Álvaro Siza.
Calatrava's project
In 1997 the famous architect, sculptor and engineer Santiago
Calatrava gave [citation needed] to the city of Venice the executive
project for a fourth pedestrian bridge over the Grand Canal
connecting the arrival area in Venice (Piazzale Roma) and the
station area of Saint Lucia. Calatrava is the author of other famous
bridges, such as the puente de la Mujer in Buenos Aires, the puente
del Alamillo on the Guadalquivir and the Oberbaumbrücke in Berlin.
The final project and assignment of the works
In 1999 the
Municipality of Venice entrusted Santiago Calatrava with the
preparation of the documentation relating to the Architectural and
Structural Engineering Drawing of the IV Bridge over the Grand
Canal. The project was developed in collaboration with all the
bodies involved (Ferrovie dello Stato, ACTV, Association of Disabled
Persons, Fire Brigade, Police, etc.) and subjected to revisions by
the Association for the Protection of the City of Venice and the
Superintendency of Artistic and Cultural Heritage of Venice.
The ICMQ, an independent body, approved the project evaluating the
design as valid and adequate to legal standards. Subsequently, the
executive project was approved by the Municipality.
The task
of carrying out the works was entrusted, after the tender, to
Cignoni from Rovigo, who made use of the collaboration of university
professors, such as engineer Francesco Colleselli (of the University
of Brescia) and engineer Renato Vitaliani (from the University of
Padua), from the company Mastropasqua-Zanchin & Associates
Structural Engineering for the structural statics of the metal deck
and engineer Giorgio Romaro (from the University of Padua) for the
assembly project.
The transport and installation of the
ashlars was carried out by the Fagioli company. The metal carpentry
work was carried out by the Lorenzon Techmec System company, which
opened a bitter dispute with Cignoni, as also emerged during the
work of a special commission of inquiry set up by the municipal
council.
Jobs
Work began in 2003. In 2002, the estimated
time frame for construction was 456 days, or about 1 year and a
half. The works, on the other hand, lasted almost 6 years.
Transport of the ashlars and their installation
After years of
postponements, doubts about the stability of the bridge and
controversy over rising costs, the works for laying the bridge began
on 28 July 2007 with the laying of the two lateral ashlars and ended
on 11 August 2007 with the laying of the ashlar central on the two
temporary supports after its transport along the Grand Canal in the
night between 7 and 8 August.
In particular, it involved
transporting the bridge, divided into three ashlars, by water from
Marghera to its final location. Two distinct transports were
therefore organised, one for the two lateral ashlars and one for the
central ashlar. Starting from Porto Marghera, they traveled along
the Giudecca Canal and entered the Grand Canal at Punta della
Dogana, to then go up it up to the resting point. To limit the
inconvenience due to the closure of the Grand Canal, both transports
were carried out at night.
The first transport, that of the
lateral ashlars, took place on the night between 27 and 28 July
2007. The two ashlars, both measuring 15.1 x 7.9 x 1.5 m and
weighing 85 t, were placed on the pontoon "Susanna " measuring 16 x
50 m, which traveled the Grand Canal in 2 hours and 10 minutes,
arriving in the Piazzale Roma area at 2.05 am on 28 July 2007, ahead
of schedule thanks to the excellent weather and sea conditions.
On the morning of 28 July, the lateral ashlar towards Piazzale
Roma was placed, while the next morning the one on the railway side
was positioned.
During the night between 7 and 8 August 2007,
the central ashlar was transported, measuring 55.2 x 9.05 x 3.7 m
and weighing 250 t, also transported on the Susanna pontoon. The
Grand Canal was traveled in about 3 and a quarter hours, arriving at
its destination around 3 am on 8 August 2007, 3 hours and 30 minutes
earlier than expected. Particularly challenging and spectacular was
the passage of the ashlar under the Rialto bridge.
The laying
of the central ashlar took place on the morning of 11 August 2007:
initially the barge was positioned and the ashlar above it was
rotated by 90 degrees; subsequently the ashlar was raised and
lowered from above, placing it, with remarkable precision, on the
two temporary supports which already supported the lateral ashlars.
The entire operation lasted about five hours: the conclusion,
announced by three siren sounds, took place at 2.32 pm.
Later
stages
Between August and September the central ashlar was welded
to the laterals, and, once the welds had been completed, on 21
September it was possible to loosen the tie rods and lower the
supports of the temporary piers, so as to take the bridge on its
shoulders, checking with jacks the extent of the load and with
sensors for any sagging of the shoulders. The load test, which took
place in November 2007, was successful. Finally, the steps were
installed (partly in glass and partly in the classic gray trachyte
of Montemerlo, all trapezoidal in shape and different from each
other, which had to be cut with millimeter precision) and the
parapets.
Baptism and opening
At the end of August 2008,
the mayor gave up the official inauguration of the bridge, initially
scheduled for the visit of the President of the Republic on 18
September 2008, who was attending a demonstration for the sixtieth
anniversary of the Italian Constitution. This was a consequence of
the announced demonstrations by some political parties due to the
sharp increase in costs and by some disabled associations due to the
existence of architectural barriers, which prevented people with
motor and visual disabilities from using them, assuming the
violation of current regulations on the matter which provide for the
possibility of approving and financing only projects without
architectural barriers.
The opening of the bridge took place
quietly at 11.44 pm on Thursday 11 September 2008. In the evening
there was a small refreshment with the construction site workers
which began around 9.00 pm, in which members of the council, the
mayor himself and some journalists took part .
The "gondola" was the translating device that was supposed to allow
disabled people to cross the bridge, even with a companion, the elderly
with mobility problems and women in an advanced state of pregnancy or
with strollers.
The minimum travel time was expected to be around
7 minutes.
The initially estimated cost was equal to 1,043,603.04
euros, which was later increased to 1.8 million.
The
infrastructure consisted of two elevators called attack pylons and two
guides positioned under the bridge on the side facing the Liberty
bridge. The transport cabin (the so-called cable car) was instead the
vehicle that used the infrastructure. For example, if the cabin was at
the desired shore, after boarding, the cabin would ascend by elevator to
the rails, ride the rails to the other elevator, and then descend by
elevator to the other elevator.
Anyone who had to use the
facilitated transport device had to press the button of a video entry
phone connected to AVM staff who, having verified on video that the
applicant had actually been unable to cross the bridge in any other way,
activated the cable car.
The gondola, which could carry a maximum
of two passengers per trip, was equipped with a body in which passengers
sat, a transparent part for external vision and a resistant dome in
carbon fiber. Once on board, after having pressed the start button, the
doors closed, the cabin was lifted from the ground by a lift and
deposited on the translating sled which set off towards the other end of
the bridge. When it reached the end of its stroke, the switching
maneuver was repeated in the reverse direction and the passengers could
descend via a ramp which connected the lift to the pavement.
The
cable car has never entered service, except for testing, and on 22 May
2020, having heard the opinion of the Court of Auditors, the
Municipality of Venice proceeded with the definitive removal of the
structure.
Costs and disputes
The cost of the work is around
11.3 million euros, to which 1.8 million euros must be added for the
cable car. The final figure clearly exceeds the 6.7 million euros
foreseen in the tender. In addition, other costs are foreseen for the
maintenance and control of the bridge.
For all these reasons,
after the Court of Auditors had also taken an interest in the affair, in
February 2008 the assistant prosecutor Carlo Mastelloni ordered the
acquisition of the documentation on the tender and the technical
projects of the bridge. The fact-finding investigation, which lasted two
years and was also supervised by the assistant prosecutor Carlo Nordio,
was closed because no crimes were found. However, Nordio still pointed
out:
«[...] the very serious errors characterizing both the
planning and the executive phase, and that relating to the tender
announcement itself, errors representative of a radical inability [...]
to understand the technical complexity of such an ambitious work, errors
repeated in a sort of exponential cloning have dilated the times of
realization and the costs of the work. [...]»
(Assistant Prosecutor)
The bridge of the Constitution has been subjected to technical
checks by the ministerial side, due to alleged omissions by the designer
regarding the real enforceability of the project presented at the time.
In particular, the bridge of the Constitution seemed to be affected by
static problems. However, the tester, with a note sent to the
Municipality of Venice on 9 September 2009, confirmed the complete
usability of the bridge.
In February 2013, a dossier finalized by
the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Auditors attributes the
rise in costs, quantified at 3.467 million euros, to "culpable behavior
by the designer and the construction manager".
The trial,
scheduled for 13 November 2013, then postponed to 12 November 2014, saw
the Valencian architect sued for 3.886 million euros which, according to
the prosecutor of the Veneto Court of Auditors, would be the tax damages
attributable to the errors of design that have determined the increase
in costs and times, as well as extraordinary maintenance requirements
mainly due to the slipperiness of the surface and to mobility for the
disabled.
Other criticisms on the bridge concern the irregular
rise and tread of the steps which force passers-by to continuously
adjust their step and the portion of the glass tread which tends to be
damaged easily and to become slippery under certain weather conditions,
such as rainfall or high humidity. Faced with numerous complaints,
requests for compensation for falls and to contain maintenance costs,
the Municipality of Venice has launched an experimental project for the
replacement of glass with trachyte. It has been estimated that the cost
of replacing each tread is 4,500 euros.
On 13 August 2019, after
having previously acquitted him in the first instance, the Court of
Auditors sentenced Calatrava on appeal to pay the sum of 78,000 euros in
favor of the tax authorities, having been held responsible for an
increase in the costs of the work linked to the underestimation of the
dimensions of some pipes (a "macroscopic negligence", according to the
accounting judges) as well as in relation to the wear times of the
steps, which were replaced after only 4 years, rather than after the 20
estimated by Calatrava, as they were heavily damaged.
The Court
of Auditors underlined that it was negligence:
«[...] all the more
serious and worthy of being stigmatized as coming from an esteemed
world-renowned professional of extremely high competence, with long and
proven experience in the construction of bridges.»