They were told that the 11-story building they lived in could collapse at any moment, they were evicted and their lives were turned upside down. In this apartment building we wrote about, the 18 million euro Superbonus was not enough: the building is still uninhabitable. Now the apartment and shop owners will have to bear additional costs to return to their homes. In the midst of the pain, suffering and unexpected costs, there is another insult: the report that led to the eviction was repeatedly rejected, even by the municipality’s technical office itself. But three years after the eviction, around 220 property owners have been left homeless while commercial activities have been destroyed: a story that represents the worst aspects of the Superbonus, the inconvenience for citizens and the costs that far exceed the benefits for the State.
Inside the building that was supposed to collapse: Superbonus construction site “military”
We are in Montesilvano, in the province of Pescara, with a population of about 53,000. This major tourist resort on the Adriatic went three summer seasons without feeling the potential collapse of an eleven-story building on the coast. Many doubts haunt the residents, but there is one among them: Why evacuate such an imposing building when life around them goes on as if nothing had happened?
But residents of the “Riviera 1” apartment building were told it could all collapse at any moment. An engineer’s report led mayor Ottavio De Martinis to issue an evacuation order, forcing residents of the 250 units to flee. A former helicopter cop, De Martinis was recently re-elected for a second term on a civilian ticket backed by the united centre-right.
After the evacuation, there was no choice but to close down the commercial activities on the ground floor. The damage was extensive. Work then began on the Superbonus, the costs of which had risen to 18 million euros. From the outside, the building looks the same as ever, with no trace of expensive work except for the fence surrounding the construction site. The interventions focused on the foundations.
Even in the days following the regulation, everything around remained unchanged: the events of the summer calendar, open commercial activities and accessible children’s playground. As can be seen from satellite images, these places are located in the immediate vicinity of Riviera 1. The palace was built in the late 1960s and has a twin next to it.
Even today, there is an air of tradition around the area. The nearby beaches are crowded with people, the vehicles on the beach are constantly coming and going, and the construction site remains silent and inaccessible. As seen in the photo below, pairs of cameras at each corner block access and long pieces of plywood shield the view inside.
The commercial activities on the ground floor (bars, restaurants and pubs) are walled off. The building’s owners told Today.it that police and gendarmes evicted them, confiscated their keys and changed the locks in front of them. How did it come to this?
Disaster report also rejected by Borrelli’s engineer
It all started in 2020. Renovation work revealed cracks in the walls of a ground-floor nightclub. The apartment manager launched an investigation, which resulted in a 252-page report a year later. The need for consolidation work was confirmed by an inspection by the fire brigade.
But the manager wants to get to the bottom of things and hands over a new investigation to another engineer, who within a few days and in five pages makes the following decision: the building is at “catastrophic” risk of collapse and “must be demolished”. We read in the new report “Immediately evacuated”. The same engineer recommends “immediate evacuation” and “controlled demolition” of the building. So the final advice: Everything can be solved with a 110% Super Bonus.
This is the report sent to the mayor, which led to the immediate eviction decision. According to testimonies compiled by Today.it, the flat owners remain unaware of everything and only realise they have been forced to leave the house after receiving an order.
“Families with pregnant women and children went to sleep on the beach.”
A resident of Riviera 1 on Today.it
But the scenario changes: two months later, the Municipality of Montesilvano publishes a “Post-mortem descriptive report”, which presents the opinion of the Technical Office on the work of the engineer who led to the evacuation. The decision regarding the building is overturned: “In fact, no credible, useful and necessary elements have emerged that would pose a danger of the building’s imminent demolition.” […]According to the results stated in the report […] It was not considered acceptable in any way.”
The report also contradicts the claim that there was a calculation error of around ten times: “There is no danger to the surrounding areas and the buildings around the building” […] also as a result of thinking […] He stated that the stress actions at the bottom of the columns showed values of the order of 2,000 – 2,500 KN, not 20,000 KN as erroneously stated in the technical report.
So much so that events of the Montesilvano summer program, including the Italian triathlon championship, are regularly held around the building. Other technical opinions later denied the report that mentioned the collapse. Four more engineers denied the report, as can be seen from the reports of the local police, who investigated the matter at the request of the Pescara Public Prosecutor’s Office. One of them, asking not to be quoted, speaks of the “economic convenience” of demolishing and rebuilding the building.
“There was no need to clean it, let alone tear it down.”
Massimo Acanfora, engineer and university professor
Among the engineers is Massimo Acanfora, a professor at the University of Naples Federico II, and Angelo Borrelli, former head of Civil Protection, contacted to carry out inspections on the building, which is at risk of collapse and implosion.
“There was no need to evacuate, let alone demolish,” says engineer Acanfora to Today.it. They asked me if it was necessary, but all the necessary tools were available to reinforce the building and it was compliant. According to current regulations”. Regarding the engineer’s “advice” regarding the work to be done with Superbonus, the university professor says: “If it is proposed to use public money for every problem that stems from historical physiological deficiencies, it becomes socially inappropriate”.
Engineers agree: The cracks in the walls have been there for years and do not justify the risk of collapse. Consolidation work should be carried out, but no one should be evacuated by moving on site.
18 million Superbonus is not enough, the company is buying houses
Residents were told their buildings were about to collapse at any moment: according to testimonies collected by Today.it, flat owners learned of the evacuation by order of the mayor. One resident told Today.it that these scenes caused panic, as if there was a “war”.
“There were people throwing their mattresses off the balcony, people leaving the toilet in their hands, people shouting and crying. In the middle of summer, pregnant women and families with children slept on the beach, while some took shelter in garages. Have the elderly been moved to RSAs?
“My life savings are gone.”
Resident of evacuated apartment building in Montesilvano
The ground floor of the eleven-storey apartment building housed restaurants, bars and pubs, which are now closed. The losses were huge – hundreds of thousands of euros per business. Some had recently invested in new equipment and were preparing to offer new services to the nearby beach: “We were thinking of a takeaway service, I had recently installed new equipment – one trader put it – but we were left with nothing. My life savings have disappeared.”
Trauma and pain are not enough, because the residents’ expenses are not limited to the rent to be paid for emergency accommodation. The evacuation actually led to work only on the foundations of the building, with the Superbonus starting in February 2022 with the “earthquake” version. And over time, the costs have reached 18 million euros.
But that’s not enough. Other measures are needed to restore the usability of the building, which was removed by order of the mayor, including rebuilding storage tanks and relocating the electrical substation and gas pipes. Cost: 866,000 euros. Among the “surprises” is the 400,000 euro lawyer’s fee. If you don’t pay, you can’t go home and the work will continue until the end of the year.
In the months following the works, the company that carried out the works bought a residence in the centre of Montesilvano for 2.9 million euros, according to chamber of commerce documents reviewed by Today.it. Turn had taken over the place in a bankruptcy settlement.
“Palazzo Roma”, we read on the website, introduces itself as “a prestigious project close to all the main services of the city”. The building has six floors and houses 36 apartments, commercial space and offices. The remaining existing houses are offered for sale between 175 thousand and 350 thousand euros.
Residents of Riviera 1 now have many unanswered questions about what happened. They have tried to make their concerns heard through demonstrations and legal action, but after an initial investigation, the Pescara Public Prosecutor’s Office ordered its closure.
We contacted Montesilvano Mayor Ottavio De Martinis several times but could not get a comment on the matter. We spoke to the floor manager who said everything was fine, that things were normal and necessary. The increase in costs was explained by the high prices of raw materials. However, we did not hear from him again for more detailed questions. In the meantime, another year has passed and 220 people continue to live away from their homes and workplaces.
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Source: Today IT
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
