(Genoa) Almost two years to the day after the collapse of the Genoa bridge which made 43 dead in August 2018, Italy inaugurated on Monday a new viaduct, but without the families of the victims for whom these ceremonies are displaced.
Giovanni GREZZI
France Media Agency
Air force acrobatic patrol jets releasing smoke in the colors of the Italian flag flew over the San Giorgio bridge against a rainbow background as the first Minister Giuseppe Conte cut the ribbon at the end of the afternoon, while the sirens of the city's harbor howled in the wind.
PHOTO LUCA BRUNO, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mr. Conte stated that "36 stars will shine high every night ", as lights were placed on top of pillars to pay homage to the victims whose names were read aloud, but in the absence of their families who refused to participate in the ceremonies and will end up in 07 days to mark the second anniversary of the tragedy.
"We will not be present at the inauguration, we do not want the tragedy to end in carnival", had explained to AFP before the ceremony Egle Possetti, representative of the Committee of the relatives of the victims who lost in this tragedy his sister, his brother-in-law and two nephews.
"You can have a big party like this if the bridge was destroyed because it was old, a new one was built and no one died," he said.
"Between pain and pride" 
The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella was the first to officially cross by car the new bridge, designed by the famous architect Renzo Piano. "We are torn between pain and pride," the architect commented soberly.
PHOTO ANDREAS SOLARO, FRANCE-PRESSE AGENCY
The 14 August 2018, in heavy rain, the Morandi motorway bridge, named after the engineer who designed it , an essential axis for trade with France but also for local journeys, had collapsed, causing in its fall dozens of vehicles, on the road to vacation or work. From 43 victims were four children.
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Since then, Italy, reputed to be the champion of slowness in the execution of public works, has gone to great lengths and completed the bridge in April, to the point where we speak today in the peninsula of the "model of Genoa ".
The last section of the bridge, approximately one kilometer long, was laid at the end of April and since then, finishing work and safety tests have followed one another to allow its inauguration.
About ten days ago, 51 trucks each weighing 43 Tonnes, i.e. some 2500 tonnes in total, have thus tested its strength.
The bridge should be open to traffic on Tuesday or Wednesday after having cleared the platform and accessories set up for the official opening.
"Son of a Tragedy" 
The building was built by a consortium of several Italian companies from a project by Renzo Piano, born in Genoa and who notably designed the Center Pompidou and the new courthouse in Paris.
White and streamlined, it has the shape of a boat hull, a tribute to the city's maritime history.
"It is a bridge [...] which does its job in silence by uniting the two sides of a valley, it is also an urban bridge because the valley is in town but it is also a son of a tragedy, "Piano said recently.
The collapse of this bridge gave rise to a bitter legal battle, which is still ongoing.
PHOTO LUCA ZENNARO, ANSA ARCHIVES VIA AP
In the dock are many people and companies, but the finger is pointed especially towards the company Autostrade per l'Italia (ASPI), manager of this road viaduct and whose main shareholder is the Benetton family in through Atlantia.
At the end of a standoff with the government in Rome, started the day after the fall of the bridge, and with an investigation still in progress but having highlighted serious shortcomings concerning the maintenance from the bridge, the Benetton family finally agreed two weeks ago to exit the Italian highways with a partial nationalization of ASPI.
The preliminary investigation is expected to be completed in October and the actual court case is due to start early next year, Possetti said.
