Bari, 16th-century tower moved to build road: first case in Italy

In the province of Bari, near Palo del Colle, the Tower of San Vincenzo, an ancient watchtower built in the 16th century, was moved to allow the construction of a road (specifically the doubling of state highway 96 linking Bari and Matera): this is the first time it has happened in Italy. The tower, twelve meters in height and weighing 800 tons, was located right on the route of the road: since the historical importance of the building made the hypothesis of demolition be immediately discarded, the best solution was to move the tower thirty-two meters. Authorization for the operation, which cost 1.5 million euros, was given by the Superintendence.

The project to move the tower, conceived by Anas, dated back to 2013, but it could only be put in place last Saturday: it took 24 hours of uninterrupted work to move the tower, to which must be added the preliminary work that was necessary to prepare the operation (for example, consolidation of the masonry). The tower was slinged, cut from its foundation, lifted by means of jacks and then pushed along a track on rails, always under control of electronic instruments to monitor the progress and assess the state of stress as well as any vibrations and oscillations.

In the pictures: the tower before the move and the tower slinged by workers from Anas, which conducted the work.

Bari, 16th-century tower moved to build road: first case in Italy

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