The bomb squads of the 32nd engineers regiment of the "Taurinense" alpine brigade, a highly specialized unit of the Italian Army, will tomorrow neutralize the 1000-pound American air bomb, dating back to the Second World War, found in recent days in the Alessandria area under the bridge between Valenza and Lomellina.
The bomb, type AN-M65 and containing about 270 kg of explosives, at the end of delicate "despolettamento" and safety measures, will be transported to a safe area north of the railway bridge, where it will be blasted without damage for the surrounding infrastructure. Particular attention will be paid - through the adoption of particular technical measures - to the protection of the natural environment, as the affected area is insistent in the Po River Park. The bomb squads of the 32nd will first remove, using the so-called "rocket key", the rear fuze of the bomb, and then proceed with the mechanical cutting of the front portion of the bomb containing the inextractable fuze and then transporting the defused section to the site identified for the blasting.
Already today the operators of the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team, together with the staff of the Deployment Support Company of the 32nd sapper regiment, intervened by implementing and finalizing the barricade works and the preparation of the blasting site. The second phase of the reclamation will begin tomorrow morning at 07.30 with the start of the preliminary procedures, while the local authorities will finish the evacuation and evacuation operations, thus allowing the continuation of the operations until the bomb is blasted.
Thanks to the close coordination between the prefecture of Alessandria and the municipality of Valenza, it was possible to proceed with the work, limiting the inconvenience to the civil population as much as possible and impacting as little as possible on the rail and air traffic facing the affected area.
