Italy’s Pisa Tower Gets Steel Braces
Workers on Friday began attaching steel braces to the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the latest scheme to stop one of the world’s most famous landmarks from reeling to ruin.
Cranes moved into Pisa’s Piazza dei Miracoli (Miracles Square) to begin fixing four 338-foot-long cables to the ornate Renaissance white marble monument that has tilted perilously for eight centuries.
Rain slowed progress, but workers hoped to attach the first pair of cables to an out-of-sight anchoring block today.
Carlo Viggiani, an engineer and professor at Naples University, told Reuters Television: “Something has to be done because the safety of the tower is not good.
“We are beginning with an operation that we call under-excavation that consists of extracting some soil from the north side of the tower, which will produce a small decrease in the inclination. That should be enough to increase the safety of the tower,” he added.
The cables, which can bear loads of 168 tons each, will only be tightened if necessary to provide support during the excavation work.
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