Nearly eight years after Genoa's Ponte Morandi gave way, a trial court delivered convictions against 32 people and prison terms totaling almost two centuries. The July 16, 2026 decisions remain open to appeal, meaning neither the findings nor the punishments are final.
The longest prominent term went to Giovanni Castellucci, formerly chief executive of motorway concessionaire Autostrade per l'Italia, or ASPI. Judges imposed 12 years, below the prosecution request of 18 years and six months. Castellucci headed ASPI between 2005 and 2019. The court found him guilty of road homicide and negligent collapse; a lesser allegation of manslaughter was incorporated into that judgment.
Castellucci is already incarcerated under a final six-year punishment arising from the 2013 Acqualonga viaduct disaster near Avellino. Forty people died when a bus went off the roadway there. The new Genoa judgment concerns the August 14, 2018 failure that killed 43.
Other former officials also received prison terms. Michele Donferri Mitelli, previously responsible for ASPI maintenance, was sentenced to 11 years. Paolo Berti, once the operator's second-ranking executive, and Antonino Galatà, the former head of inspection affiliate SPEA, were both given terms of five and a half years. The court imposed five years on Mauro Coletta, formerly responsible for motorway-concession oversight within the transport ministry, was given five years. Of the remaining defendants, 25 were acquitted or had proceedings end because limitation periods expired.
Competing explanations for the collapse featured throughout the case. Prosecutors argued that corrosion caused a supporting stay at pier 9 to fail. They said ASPI leaders deferred reinforcement to save money and contended that government supervision was insufficient. Defence teams instead pointed to an original, concealed construction flaw that ordinary inspection methods could not reveal.
Proceedings started on July 7, 2022 and ran for 284 hearings. Defendants included technical staff and past managers from ASPI, SPEA, and public oversight institutions. The companies themselves exited the criminal case after accepting an arrangement involving about €30 million in compensation. One day before judgment, current ASPI chief Arrigo Giana published an apology for the company in Corriere della Sera.
Genoa has already replaced the destroyed landmark. After demolition of its remains, a new crossing designed without charge by locally born architect Renzo Piano began operating in August 2020. It is named the Genoa San Giorgio Bridge.
The trial ruling assigns criminal responsibility at first instance, but the appeal process can reconsider convictions and sentence lengths. That procedural distinction is central: the court has issued its findings, yet the litigation has not reached its definitive conclusion. Available reporting supplies no additional evidence that would resolve these stated uncertainties, so the boundaries of the documented record remain important.
