School in Villafranca Reopens After Structural Repairs and Safety Inspections
Students in the street for two hours yesterday morning. After returning from the Easter holidays, extended by the May Day bridge, they were surprised to find the entrance of the school in via Berto Barbarani blocked.
All due to some plaster fragments falling from the ceiling in the teachers’ room. The building housing both the Enrico Medi Scientific High School branch and the Carlo Anti Vocational Institute for Commerce, both based in Villafranca, has been under observation and monitoring by the provincial building sector technicians since December due to cracks appearing in the walls.
Interventions and inspections on the school structure
Yesterday morning, at the school’s opening, the headmistress of the Anti branch found a broken glass indicator tile on the floor of the teachers’ room, detached from the wall. This discovery advised Teacher Prassede Ferran, as a precaution, not to let students into their respective classes until she had contacted the school principal.
This initiative was also supported by the vice principal of Medi, Maria Biasi. Communication between the principals continued via fax, with information about the incident transmitted to the school building maintenance sector.
Only around ten o’clock, after the head of Medi, Giovanni Fiorentino, received assurances about the building’s safety, could the students enter the school and start classes.
Building condition and technical monitoring
The school building in via Barbarani was constructed in the 1980s, in multiple phases. It is a modular structure with prefabricated elements, built according to code, as certified by inspections.
With the students’ return from Christmas, cracks appeared at various points in the building, especially at the joint lines between the modular blocks. These cracks widened even after repairs made to the concrete wall, which included openings to bring the building up to safety standards and to connect it with an external emergency staircase.
The provincial technicians, including the materials testing laboratory, responded immediately by monitoring the entire structure. A removable mechanical extensometer was installed to provide data on the movement of the cracks.
From the surveys, it emerged that, being a relatively new structure in the process of settling, some movement in the joints of the three blocks was to be expected. Temperature fluctuations caused expansions and contractions that produced cracks, detachment of plasters, and exposed gaps between modules.
Although this situation is considered normal by the technicians, it nonetheless caused concern among the teaching staff. Despite assurances about the stability and safety, the falling glass marker tile, which had previously been reported as safe, reignited fears.
Precautions and student reactions
Yesterday morning, Prassede Ferrari, the head of the Anti branch, before allowing students to enter, deemed it necessary to receive precise assurances about the building’s stability.
The students, initially blocked in the courtyard and later invited into the classrooms, asked their representatives for information about the ongoing repairs and the safety measures to be adopted.
“For greater peace of mind, not only ours, we are waiting,” — said spokesperson Francesco Bazerla — “for reassuring public statements”.
