Bridge: cars return to travel the viaduct, inaugurated with Minister Paola De Micheli and municipal administrators. Commissioner Gentile: trains will return by September

The greeting between the mayors of Paderno and Calusco and the leaders of RFI

The opening ceremony took place starting at 2.30pm, about an hour after the first car passed on the bridge after 14 months of uninterrupted closure. To guide her, a 78-year-old from Carvico who, since January, explained, had traveled 18,000 kilometers with his new Panda to join his friends at the Circerno di Paderno, passing by the Brivio Bridge.

A person like many others for whom the closure of San Michele represented a difficulty (with the due differences between those who used it to work or study and who to spend time with friends). Difficulties, large or small, mentioned in some of the interventions of the authorities that participated in the inauguration. For the first time in 14 months of closure of the San Michele, traffic was present president of the Italian Railway Network Claudia Cattani, which spoke of the importance, for the presiding body, of guaranteeing the safety of the works it manages.

Claudia Cattani, president of RFI Italy

"We had to interrupt the viability of the bridge, one of the most beautiful examples of Italian industrial archeology, for safety reasons. This reminds us how important the maintenance of the works is for us and the fact that this is done also with extraordinary activities, when it is a reason for safety to request it "were his words.

The interventions of the first citizens of Calusco and Paderno, Michele Pellegrini is Gianpaolo Torchio, have instead said a lot about the vision that the two Administrations have with respect to the structure and what we want to build around it. "We hope that the extraordinary commissioner Maurizio Gentile, as he allowed the reopening to vehicular traffic one month in advance to do the same also for the railway traffic next year", said the Pellusini caluschese (being satisfied shortly after by the Eng. Gentile).

Michele Pellegrini, mayor of Calusco

'' However, we are aware that this bridge cannot be more than a stopgap. We need a new one, not just railway as we have said, but also road. Otherwise the Bergamo and Lecco areas will remain uneven for a long time ''. Several words from Torchio, who did not mention the new bridge but spoke about the development of San Michele. "We all lived in September 2018 as a tear that had to be sewn up," he said.

Gianpaolo Torchio, mayor of Paderno

'' This re-stitching made partly in March with the reopening of the pedestrian crossing and continued today allows us to resume a new important connection between the two shores, but to normality we will arrive only to the reopening of the railway traffic. However, we would like that even then everything will not return as before, but we would like this exceptional work suspended 80 meters from the river and joining two spons 260 meters away to find a project of enhancement and maintenance that is continuous. This is why we ask the Government and Rfi for a commitment. We want it to be valued. This separation has united us a lot, with the Californian administrators, with whom we want to return to live this extraordinary structure ". The Padernese administration's commitment to obtaining the transition to UNESCO world heritage will therefore continue.

Maurizio Gentile, CEO of RFI

You will not fail in this, as confirmed by the CEO Maurizio Gentile, the support of RFI. "We will certainly be at the side of the Administrations for this valorisation initiative" explained Eng. Gentile, then passed to answer the mayor Pellegrini. "We are studying alternative tracks and I take this opportunity to ask the administrators and the Region from now on an appointment to illustrate the first ideas we have put down in black and white".

Once again, Gentile has not been too unbalanced to indicate where a new structure will arise. What he did was make a new promise, after that – kept – to bring forward the car reopening by a month. '' Given that it brings good, I can say that we will commit ourselves – even if I do not give you the full certainty – that, having spoken with our technicians, there is the possibility that we will reopen the San Michele to the railway traffic already with the recovery of the next school year''.

Claudia Terzi, regional councilor for transport

To close the time of the interventions, which happened among other things while it was raining heavily, were the regional transport councilor Claudia Terzi, which has not added too much except that the shuttles for students (which from Paderno lead directly to Bergamo) will be guaranteed until the reopening to rail traffic, and the transport minister Paola De Micheli, which has instead defined the San Michele the symbol of the great theme of infrastructures.

Transport Minister Paola De Micheli

"This bridge has a symbolic story for me and for us that we face the big theme of infrastructure every day", he commented. '' It describes better than anything else the discomfort that is created when a construction site is opened. Everyone asks us to open and secure the large structures. But this leads to discomfort, certainly to be endured if the objective is that of security ''.

The managers of Impresa Notari, contractor of the works

Ribbon cutting with Minister De Micheli

The cutting of the ribbon was then very quick, thanks to the driving rain. After about half an hour, around 3.40 pm, on the San Michele road everything seems to have returned to before that fateful 14 September 2018.