Workers in face masks laid the final section of a new viaduct in Genoa on Tuesday, as Italy's prime minister paid tribute to the 43 people killed when the road bridge it is replacing collapsed less than two years ago. While the country's severe coronavirus epidemic has halted most construction projects nationwide, teams building the link across the port city's Polcevera River defied a flood and one case of the disease to finish it on schedule.

Connecting Italy with France, the old bridge broke apart on Aug. 14, 2018, prompting national outrage. "This cannot be a day of celebration because it derives from a tragedy but the Genoa model sheds a light on the whole of Italy," Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told guests at a small ceremony held beneath the new structure.