An attempt to determine and categorize modern eras of italian infrastructure construction art, by example of the macroscopic urbanized area of Genova. Four ages of infrastructure construction types define the past century:

1. First 'new' road and railway lines, built around 1900-1920. Caracteristic are pylons and arches of red bricks forming elegant viaducts, and the hectagonally shaped stones used for sustainment walls (same principle as used by ancient romans).
2. The Mussolini era in the 1930ies saw the construction of the first highway linking the harbour with the flatlands in the north, passing over numerous bridges and through tunnels. For the first time, steel reinforced concrete was used to build light bridges with very thin looking structures. Endless Railings were hand painted in black and white, as were most walkway borders.
3. From the 1950ies until 1970, more layers of highways were added, their bridges are caracterized by prestreched concrete beams sitting on heavy round poles. A huge highway bridge was built across a densily urbanized valley, the thin bridge structure remebers the fine art of concrete tecnology of the 1920ies.
4. From the end of the 1990ies, infrastructure saw mostly adaption works, to keep disentegrating conrete alive. The nearby sea and the not always wise idea not to impermeabilize bridge surfaces quickly eroded the iron beams under the surface, thus blasting away concrete pieces that once covered them. Bridges were strengthened with additional belts and anchors. The once simple and non-standardized guardrails were replaced by ultra heavy duty systems, withstanding the ever growing traffic weights and volumes.

To the knowing eye, all this adds up to a fascinating painting, an open history book of different work practices and tecnology eras...

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