In recent days, the Army engineers, active in the railway engineering regiment of Castel Maggiore (BO), defused a military device, found during the work for the safety of a side of the motorway in the municipality of Sasso Marconi.
The bomb, an aircraft bomb, weighing about 500 pounds (equal to 243 kg) was found in poor storage conditions but still active.
The operations, directed and coordinated by the prefecture of Bologna and the command Northern operational forces of Padua, took place in three phases: during the first one was built on the site of discovery, around the bomb, a temporary protection structure for the mitigation of the effects due to an accidental explosion; in the second phase, the neutralization of bombs by removing the trigger systems; finally, in the third phase, in an area suitably conditioned in order to protect public safety, it was made the plane bomb go off.
The construction of the protective structures made it possible to reduce the risk deriving from the effects of any accidental explosions, allowing the evacuation of only six families. This goal is the result of a long experimentation activity carried out by the Army's C-IED center of excellence in collaboration with the “La Sapienza” University of Rome.
To ensure an adequate safety framework, during the operations to remove the ignition systems, it was necessary to partially interrupt the viability of the variant of the SS64 “Porrettana” as well as some municipal and provincial roads near the area where the bomb was found.
The experience of the specialists of the Castel Maggiore Army is testified by the over 350 interventions carried out over the last year, in their area of competence (Marche Region, Umbria and in the provinces of Bologna, Forlì Cesena, Rimini and Florence).
