In light of the tragedy that struck Italy when a bridge collapsed in Genoa on Tuesday, claiming the lives of at least 37 people, including children, engineering expert, Professor Avdo Tuce, said that something similar is unlikely to happen in Bosnia.

Over the last 44 years, Tuce has been involved in the construction of nearly 400 bridges.  

He said that in Bosnia, since the time of the Ottoman rule, the state was the one building bridges and that in China all companies that build them are owned by the government.  

“It was a mistake to let a private company built bridges in Italy. We know how private companies seek to save money,” he said, adding that it would be difficult to determine who was responsible for the Genoa collapse.  

The expert said that in Bosnia, there are a number of “excellent” stone bridges that were built in the 16th century.  

Those bridges were built by architects who were educated at the Istanbul University, Tuce said.  

“Not one bridge that Turkey (the Ottoman Empire) built was constructed without an verification and each one of them was built from the state budget,” he said but added that of all of them, only the bridge in the eastern town of Visegrad is in danger.  

Bosnia has very strict criteria for bridge construction, he said, as every detail is looked into before works even start.  

“We are lucky that not one of our bridges is under any kind of ban. In the (1992-1995) war we had nearly 70 destroyed bridges and now we have the newest bridges in Europe. We built 250 kilometres of highway and all the bridges on those roads are of very good quality,” he explained.