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GENOA, Italy, Aug. 17-- Three Days after the collapse of a major bridge that killed dozens in the northwest Italian city of Genoa, authorities were mulling two solutions to try to minimize the effects of the disaster in the short and medium term. On one hand, alternative routes are needed to divert heavy vehicles headed to port from passenger traffic. On the other hand, the city plans to build a new viaduct in the place of the fallen one in two years. On Tuesday, the mid-section of a 1,182-meter viaduct called Morandi Bridge -- linking Genoa west and east, and leading to two major highways -- suddenly collapsed, sending dozens of cars and trucks falling some 45 meters to the ground. As of Friday, the death toll was 38 -- revised from previous 39 -- while 15 wounded people remained in hospital, according to the local prefecture. The figure was provisional, and the chief prosecutor investigating into culpable disaster and culpable manslaughter, Francesco Cozzi, suggested up to 10-20 people could still be missing. POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES The city of Genoa -- some 580,000 inhabitants, and the premier container port of Italy -- was deeply wounded by the tragedy. The bridge collapse has severely maimed the city's complex viability system, depriving it from a major artery towards port areas. "In the short term, we could have a drop up to 10 percent of the goods volume annually exchanged in the two port basins of Genoa," Paolo Signorini, chairman of the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority, told Xinhua. | 
