(PISA, Italia, Thursday 30 March 2000)ANSA Italian News Agency GRD/ FG 30/ 03/ 2000 13: 36 PISA TOWER: Inclination Reduced by Another Centimeter (ANSA) - In the first three months of 2000 the precipice (inclination) of the bell tower of Pisa has decreased by another centimeter, a total of five cm. since the initiation of the final subexcavation to reduce the inclination of the monument, closed to the public for 10 years. It has been made known by the engineer responsible for the yard, Paolo Heiniger, on the eve of the reunion of the international Committee for the safeguard of the tower, a reunion scheduled for tomorrow and the first of April but then postponed by the unavailability of the president, Michele Jamiolkowski. Meanwhile, to the side of the tower, as scheduled in the plan, two bases have been built, one to the East; the other, west, on which 12 plates have been fixed (twins to 41 in operation for the subexcavatione), ready in case their use becomes necessary. Meanwhile the dismantlement of the experimental field for the subexcavation built on the piazza of the Cathedral near the Old Cemetery has been started. In a few days, the area will be returned for the enjoyment of tourists announced the president of the Primaziale, Pierfrancesco Pacini. (ANSA). |
 (PISA, Italia, Thursday March 30 2000 3:08 PM ET) Associated Press Tower of Pisa To Open Next Year PISA, Italy (AP) - The Leaning 
Tower of Pisa is 2 inches straighter
since the start of the year and should be sturdy enough to open to the public in June 2001,
an engineer said Thursday. Tourists last made the dizzying ascent inside the 12th-century
tower more than 10 years ago, before it was closed in an attempt to stop its dangerous tilt
and then try to straighten it.
Work is now in its final phase, with experts removing some 100 tons of dirt from under the monument's foundation. Chief Engineer Paolo Heiniger said the digging was proceeding on schedule. He predicted the tower would lean as much as 20 inches less when the project is complete. Going into the experiment, the tower leaned some 6 degrees - 13 feet - off the perpendicular. Before tourists go back up the tower, workers will remove 10 steel rings that were placed around the tower to strengthen it as well as some 800 tons of lead counterweights placed at the monument's base to shore it up while work was being done. Also to be removed are a pair of slender, steel "suspenders", attached to the tower as another precaution in case it needed to be yanked back up during work. So far the suspenders haven't been needed. |
