Italy's tilting Garisena tower to be shored up with similar equipment used for the Tower of Pisa

Italy’s Garisenda tower, which is nowadays known as another “leaning tower” because of its extreme tilting, is on the verge of collapsing, as per authorities. The duo towers are situated in the Northern Italiancity of Bologna and were built in the 12th century.

The towers have been leaning (or tilting) at an alarming rate for now, and authorities have come up with a plan similar to the one that shored up the Tower of Pisa.

One of the two titling Garisenda towers is 48 meters high and is about two centuries old. At present, it leans at an angle of four degrees, just a little more than the Pisa tower’s current 3.9-degree slant. Last year, the streets of the city were cordoned off for scientists to examine the area under the tower to find whether there is any evidence of cracking in the ground, concluding that the structure is at “high risk”.

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On Wednesday, Bologna's mayor Matteo Lepore announced that pylons and cables used to save the Tower in Pisa would now be deployed with adapted steel scaffolding to prevent Garisenda Towerfrom falling.

“This will make it possible to secure the tower,” Lepore told a press conference. He said it could allow the Asinelli Tower, a taller structure that stands next to Garisenda, to reopen to the public.

“In 2025 and 2026 there will be further consolidation and restoration work, which still needs to be planned,” Lepori added.

The entire repair work will cost around 19 million euros (about $20 million) and will take “about six months” to adapt the equipment used for the Tower of Pisa to Garisenda, said Lepore.

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According to a municipality press release, once the two steel pylon structures used in Pisa are erected and adapted to Garisenda, consolidation work will begin on the tower’s masonry. The structure will also be induced with injections of a lime-based mortar mix compatible with the one used in the building’s original construction.

Then cables connecting the pylons to scaffolding attached to the tower would be tightened, a procedure that would decrease stress levels at the tower’s base.

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The Tower of Pisa, which is now the centrepiece of a UNESCO World Heritage site, started leaning in the 1990s. Concerns surrounding its structure's probable fall led to an international effort to stop it from falling to the ground. The rehabilitation process for the tower started in 1993 and took eight whole years to make it intact.

Today the bell tower is a stable monument due to the steel pylons which will hopefully give the Garisenda tower a second life.

(With inputs from agencies)