Heroic Failures - historic bridge blocking newly built boats
July 13, 2022 11:44 PM Subscribe
I am trying to find out, or confirm my memory about, a previous occasion when newly built boats were stuck up river because a historic bridge could not be dismantled to let them through. It is currently happening to Jeff Bezos - but I recall reading about some navy patrol boats built in Italy, and then stuck because the town refused to allow a historic bridge to be dismantled to let them through. It was in a book called Return of Heroic Failures, which I had a very long time ago.
https://www.dmarge.com/jeff-bezos-superyacht
Best answer: Good find, crocomancer. The incident described is on p. 99:
posted by Johnny Assay at 5:08 AM on July 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
Although they specialize in making smaller vessels, the Intermarine Company at Ameglia amazed all Italy in 1981 by landing a £4 million contract to build one minesweeper and three military launches for the Malaysian government.Fun fact: from what I can tell from various online sources & Google Translate, the bridge in question partially collapsed in a flood in 2010, was repaired, and then was destroyed in another flood the next year.
Undeterred, they set about their task. Only when the huge craft were completed did the builders recall that their shipyards were connected to the sea by the River Magra upon which nestled the attractively minute Colombiera Bridge. Not one of their new vessels was able to pass underneath it.
Intermarine offered to knock down the bridge and rebuild it, but the local council refused and the people of Ameglia gathered round to admire their new navy.
posted by Johnny Assay at 5:08 AM on July 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
When the bridge was destroyed, did the ships finally escape?
posted by ejs at 6:05 AM on July 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by ejs at 6:05 AM on July 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
There's a chapter about this story in Graham Bennett's 1982 book Dilemmas: Coping with Environmental Problems. There's lots more background in there, but to summarise...
The Columbiera Bridge was built in 1960 as part of a roadbuilding programme to improve access for the growing tourist trade in the area. When the Intermarine shipyard was built in 1970, the limited headroom was known to be a problem but the mayor promised to allow modification of the bridge later. Intermarine tendered to build four fibreglass minehunters with a tall superstructure for the Italian navy in 1976, and applied to the Italian road authority ANAS to modify the bridge at the same time; the request was approved, but AMAS didn't carry out a local consultation, which caused a huge outcry.
Intermarine, now having received further orders for the same design from other countries including Malaysia and Indonesia, looked at various other ways of getting the ships past the bridge - road transport, lifting them over with a crane, removing the superstructure and reattaching it, digging a new canal - but none looked practical. By the time the first ships were completed in 1983, the Italian navy were threatening to annul the contract. The Ameglia council voted to approve the modifications in January 1983, and the new Italian government finally provided their approval at the end of the year, with a raft of conditions to minimise impact to the local community.
The bridge was eventually modified during May 1984 - the Giro d'Italia was due to use the bridge as part of their course on May 31st, so it had to be finished by then! The first four completed ships - Lerici and Sapri for Italy, and Kinabalu and Ledang for Malaysia - left the shipyard as soon as the bridge was open.
posted by offog at 7:51 AM on July 14, 2022 [7 favorites]
The Columbiera Bridge was built in 1960 as part of a roadbuilding programme to improve access for the growing tourist trade in the area. When the Intermarine shipyard was built in 1970, the limited headroom was known to be a problem but the mayor promised to allow modification of the bridge later. Intermarine tendered to build four fibreglass minehunters with a tall superstructure for the Italian navy in 1976, and applied to the Italian road authority ANAS to modify the bridge at the same time; the request was approved, but AMAS didn't carry out a local consultation, which caused a huge outcry.
Intermarine, now having received further orders for the same design from other countries including Malaysia and Indonesia, looked at various other ways of getting the ships past the bridge - road transport, lifting them over with a crane, removing the superstructure and reattaching it, digging a new canal - but none looked practical. By the time the first ships were completed in 1983, the Italian navy were threatening to annul the contract. The Ameglia council voted to approve the modifications in January 1983, and the new Italian government finally provided their approval at the end of the year, with a raft of conditions to minimise impact to the local community.
The bridge was eventually modified during May 1984 - the Giro d'Italia was due to use the bridge as part of their course on May 31st, so it had to be finished by then! The first four completed ships - Lerici and Sapri for Italy, and Kinabalu and Ledang for Malaysia - left the shipyard as soon as the bridge was open.
posted by offog at 7:51 AM on July 14, 2022 [7 favorites]
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posted by crocomancer at 4:42 AM on July 14, 2022 [2 favorites]