BBC News Online: World: Europe

Bid to save Leaning Tower of Pisa

Heavy rain prevented engineers from beginning the operation to attach steel "suspenders" to the tower.

The engineer overseeing the work, Paolo Heiniger, said the two sets of 50-millimeter thick cables had been moved to the base of the 12th-century tower.

The project, to reduce the inclination of the tower by half a degree, has run into a series of obstacles, delaying its start for months.

The last bid to save the tower, in 1995, actually made things worse - it lurched forward suddenly during excavations around its base.

This time the experts are taking no chances. They have designed a kind of safety belt for the 800-year-old landmark.

Four steel cables will be attached to it to ensure it does not topple.

Once they are in place, soil will be siphoned out from under its raised north side.

This will cause the tower to slip back slightly, into a more upright position - or that at least is the theory.

Finally, the concrete ring around its base will be widened, with 10 steel cables anchoring the tower to the ground.

Worries over plan

The plan is controversial and not without risks. Critics claim it could destabilise the fragile structure even further.

But the international experts behind the project insist that the tower will not survive without it. They say it could collapse completely within 20 years.

There is no question of trying to straighten the tower altogether - the tilt is what guarantees its appeal. This plan aims merely at a correction of half a degree.

Trying to achieve even this much will take years but if it works the experts say it will safeguard the tower for centuries to come.

Relevant Stories

Eastern promise for leaning tower (13 Aug 98 | Europe)

Internet Links

Leaning Tower of Pisa information
Scientific American - Leaning Tower of Pisa
Doctoral Thesis - the leaning tower

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

In this section

Violence greets Clinton visit
Russian forces pound Grozny
EU fraud: a billion dollar bill
Next steps for peace
Cardinal may face loan-shark charges
Vodafone takeover battle heats up (From Business)
Trans-Turkish pipeline deal signed
French party seeks new leader
Jube tube debut
Athens riots for Clinton visit
UN envoy discusses Chechnya in Moscow
Solana new Western European Union chief
Moldova's PM-designate withdraws
Chechen government welcomes summit
In pictures: Clinton's violent welcome
Georgia protests over Russian 'attack'
UN chief: No Chechen 'catastrophe'
New arms control treaty for Europe
Mannesmann fights back (From Business)
EU fraud -- a billion-dollar bill
New moves in Spain's terror scandal
EU allows labelling of British beef
UN seeks more security in Chechnya
Athens riots for Clinton visit
Russia's media war over Chechnya
Homeless suffer as quake toll rises
Analysis: East-West relations must shift