Leaning Tower of Pisa Leans No More

(PISA, Italia, Friday 21 January 2000)  National Post (Toronto) and The Daily Telegraph

Leaning Tower of Pisa Leans No More after 10 Years of 
Stabilizing Work to Halt Tilt

by Bruce Johnston of The Daily Telegraph


(PISA, Italia, Wednesday, March 01, 2000)
For the first time in more than eight centuries, the Leaning Tower of Pisa has finally 
stabilized. Professor Michele Jamiolkowski, who heads a committee of experts 
entrusted with saving the monument, said that, after 10 years of work to halt 
its increasing tilt, instruments had registered no movement at all in the past 
three months. 

The tower has tended to lean by one millimetre more each year, with the result 
that a decade ago it appeared on the verge of collapse. It was hastily closed 
to the public and emergency measures taken to prevent its collapse. These included 
the placing of 800 tons of lead weights at the base of the tower on the side away 
from the tilt to try to pull it back up. That was the first phase in the salvage operation. 

In the latest phase, experts have started removing 30 tons of subsoil from beneath the tower 
in an area away from the incline. By so doing, it is hoped that the tower will bear down of 
its own accord and fill the space, thereby straightening itself by about 45 centimetres. 
Digging began in earnest last week. As the first few cubic metres of earth were removed, the 
tower was protected by slackened "braces" made of iron cables anchored to the ground, which 
in the event of an emergency would suddenly become taut, much in the way seat belts function 
in vehicles. 

In the meantime, there are plans for a second 19.5-metre "tower" to go up alongside the first, 
beginning next month. To be made of scaffolding, it will serve as a "laboratory" for 
specialists with the Culture Ministry's Central Institute of Restoration to study the tower's 
surface for its eventual artistic restoration. Prof. Jamiolkowski said that, by next year, 
almost $23-million (US) will have been spent on the monument. 

Work began on the tower in 1173 but, when construction had only reached the third storey, 
subsidence triggered the incline so obvious today. As a result, work had to be suspended for 
a century and the tower was finished only in the late 14th century.