PSI - Issue 84

M.P. Petrangeli et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 84 (2026) 135–142

136

1. Introduction During the night between the 2nd and the 3rd of October, 2021, the historical bridge “Il Ponte dell’Industria”, erected between 1862 and 1863, renewed for the first time in 1910 and nowadays protected by law as being of historical value and an icon of the post-industrial style of the “Ostiense” neighborhood, was severely damaged by a fire accidentally started among the bushes underneath the bridge. The purpose of the present paper is to describe the project and the site works for the retrofitting of the so-called “Ponte di Ferro”.

Fig. 1 (a). "Il Ponte dell’Industria" under fire

Fig. 1(b). Damaging of the bridge due to fire

2. Bridge renewal project for the 2025 “Lubilaeum” year Being the damaged bridge one of the main links between the “Ostiense” neighborhood on the east bank of the Tiber River and “Portuense” on the west side, it was imperative to intervene in order to remove the traffic restrictions and if possible to improve the performance of the bridge so that, in view of the important Catholic Church celebration for the 2025 “Giubileo” the municipality of Roma, as owner of the bridge, together with ANAS Spa (the Italian National Agency of roads and highways), nominated by law as the subject responsible for the entire process, decided to start an important retrofitting of the bridge with the challenging goals of: • Removing the 3.5 tons weight limit for allowed vehicles; • increasing the dimension of the road platform from the original width of 5.10 m to 7.5 m so that, with a two-way line carriageway, the public transportation busses could cross the bridge simultaneously; • introducing, on each side of the bridge, an additional 2 meters wide lane dedicated to bikers and pedestrians; • maintaining in service, during the almost 2 years of works duration, all the utilities carried by the bridge, being of extreme importance as the only utilities linking between the “Ostiense” neighborhood on the east and “Portuense” on the west bank of the Tiber River; • increasing the performance of the bridge under seismic conditions; • as the last, but actually the most challenging of the goals, preserve and restore the original bridge protected by law as being of historical value and an icon of the post-industrial style of “Ostiense” neighborhood.

Fig. 2. Rendering of the design solution