Genoa Bridge Collapse Sparks Safety Concerns in Balkans

The collapse of a bridge in the Italian city of Genoa which left 39 people dead on Tuesday has raised safety concerns in some Balkan countries over the state of their own transportation infrastructure.

The Romanian road administration CNAIR said on Thursday that "none of the 4,250 Romanian bridges is on the brink of collapse", following a wave of concern from analysts and citizens on social media after the tragedy in Genoa.

"None of these bridges presents any risk of collapse," the administration said in a press release.

A World Economic Forum report in 2017 ranked Romania 120th out of 137 states in terms of road infrastructure.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov ordered his administration on Wednesday to carry out bridge repairs across the country and come up with new solutions to fix outdated and dangerous bridges more than one at a time.

Bulgaria is also dealing with problems with ageing transport infrastructure. In February 2017, a light fitting in the Echemishka tunnel in northern Bulgaria came loose, falling on a car and killing a 64-year-old woman.

The accident prompted the government to order an inspection, which established that 16 of 34 tunnels checked by Bulgaria's Road Infrastructure Agency posed a moderate to high risk of accidents.

Meanwhile in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Osman Lindov, a professor at the Faculty of Transport in Sarajevo, said on Wednesday that structures in the country older than 40 years pose a safety risk.

"There are bridges, tunnels and viaducts on the main road network that present a danger," Lindov told the regional N1 television channel.

Croatia's assistant Construction Minister Zeljko Uhlir told N1 that the maintenance of Croatian bridge infrastructure is regular and of a...