Cemento armato autarchico. I ponti militari nella campagna di Etiopia (1935-1936)

In Eritrea, on the road from Nefasit to Decameré stand out 8 large reinforced concrete bridges. Made by Italian engineers and workers in 1935, as part of the logistical preparations of war in Ethiopia, these sturdy bow-string are the progenitors of the numerous structures "without iron" that, with the promotion in Italy of the autarchic policy, were spread throughout the national territory. The strict prior conditions (lack of skilled workers and means of work, want of infrastructure, relentless deadlines, torrid climate) disclose the design and construction of these structures as significant cases also within other histories: in the colonial history, as they constitute the Italian variation of the experimentation on reinforced concrete in tropical climate and in that of military bridges where the use of reinforced concrete stands out as an unique application.