carlo lotti - nino gorio

A LONG JOURNEY50 years of engineering throughout the world

(English Summary)

PrefaceCesare Romiti

A LONG JOURNEY50 years of engineering throughout the world

Carlo Lotti - Nino Gorio

Copyright © Ulrico Hoepli Editore S.p.A. 2008via Hoepli 5, 20121 Milano (Italy)tel. +39 02 864871 – fax +39 02 8052886e-mail hoepli@hoepli.it

www.hoepli.it

All rights reserved according to law and international conventions.

ISBN 978-88-203-4081-0

Proceeds from the sale of this book(not within the publisher’s competence) will be made over to the organisation Emergency whose work of medical assistance to peoples afflicted by war or in difficulty we have been able to appreciatein places where we have been or are present.C. Lotti & Associati, Rome

Editorial coordinationAndrea Gobbo - Studio Associati, MilanLuisa Mariotti - C. Lotti & Associati, Rome

MapsAngelo Siviglia

Graphic art and page set-upStudio Turconi & CompanyFiorangela Casella (Arte)

PrintingGraphic World srl, Melzo (MI)

Photo creditsWe wish to thank the Consorzio di Bonifica Bradano eMetaponto of Matera for the photographs of A. De Gasperi(page 19) and sig. Antonio Foschino - www.sassiweb.it.for the photo of the lake of San Giuliano (page 20) .

Printed in Italy

contents

PREFACE by Cesare Romiti 4

INtROdUCtION 1 6A collective adventure - by Carlo Lotti INtROdUCtION 2 7A single umanity - by Nino Gorio

PART ONE: A BRIEF HIStORY - by Carlo Lotti 9

PART TWO: COUNtRIES ANd WORKS - by Nino Gorio 12 - ItALY: Blue waters, dear waters - EUROPE: Walls, Aqueducts and sprites - MEAddLE EASt: Wanted: Roads to Peace - FAR EASt: Giving drink to the jungles - CHINA: Less wild dragoons - NORtH AFRICA: Water, deserts and freedom - SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: to each his own Nile - SOUtH AMERICA: On the Andes, between Niño and Niños - CENtRAL AMERICA: dancing among the Hurricanes

PART THREE: A AS “AQUA” A AS ARt 26

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preface

I met Carlo Lotti in Africa, at the inauguration of the Bakolori Dam in Nigeria. It was 1983 and I was managing director of Fiat, one of whose subsidiaries was Impresit, founded by Vittorio Valletta. This company then merged with two major businesses in the sector (Lodigiani and Girola), thus giving rise to Impregilo, which implemented some of the most arduous and important engineering works around the world that still do Italy honour. Of these, I recall the Kariba Dam on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, the rescue of the temple at Abu Simbel in Egypt from being submerged by the waters of the Aswan dam, the Tarbela Dam in Pakistan, whose dimensions were much greater than any built up to then, the Yaciretá Dam, on the border between Argentina and Uruguay, and the one at Ertan in China.

I went to the Bakolori inauguration with Guido Carli, who, after leaving his post as Governor of the Bank of Italy, had been keen to become chairman of Impresit owing to his enthusiasm for major world-class projects and because, during his long years in key posts in the financial world, he had always been fascinated, in his trips abroad, by the quality of Italians working on major works of civil engineering worldwide, and by their attachment to Italy. Carlo Lotti was at Bakolori because the work that was being inaugurated had been implemented by Impresit with the collaboration of Lotti and with the firm Il Nuovo Castoro.

I was struck by the man and the works that had been built. Carlo Lotti is one of the best-known Italians in the world for his experience in the water sector. He was there in all simplicity, in the midst of the men who had built the dam and implemented the irrigation works making possible the cultivation and harvesting of wheat for the first time in that country’s history. Carli and I were enthusiastic and spoke together about this businessman, not only because of the works he had implemented and was continuing to implement throughout the world, but also because of the simplicity with which he explained the project and the way he spoke and dealt with Italian and Nigerian collaborators working on the spot. That episode led me to an important conclusion: real men are the ones that stay simple and human, even when they take on major tasks.

I stayed there for two days and then went on with the Fiat Company plane to Brazil, where we were starting up the great motorcar works at Belo Horizonte. Subsequently I met Mr. Lotti on many occasions, got to know his collaborators, whom he considered friends rather than employees and who reciprocated his feelings. In his presentation of this book, Carlo Lotti says that it’s not the story of his life, but of a group of men – today about two hundred – who continue to design and implement technologically advanced works all over the world. And I think he’s right to say that.

At the time, I clearly understood why Guido Carli had asked to take over the chairmanship at Impresit: it was because even then a great difference and distance could be felt between Italy and the Italians working abroad, often in extremely uncomfortable conditions, implementing works of which Italy could only be proud. A bitter reflection: this difference between the situa-

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tion of our country and Italians throughout the world has now become much greater. Perhaps our young people, instead of dealing with finance in London and New York, should – at the start of their activity – have a different professional and living experience, on jobs where salary is not the only thing, but where they can learn to be real human beings, capable of guiding others.

Running through the pages of this book, one is amazed to see in how many countries Messrs Lotti have worked and are still working. The book records events and works, from the Florence flood to works in Cuba, from activities in China to the Mose project for the high tides in Venice, from the Middle East to Afghanistan, from the Philippines to Indonesia and Vietnam, from Libya to Chad, from Central America to Peru, from Argentina to Brazil. Although Messrs Carlo Lotti has its offices in Rome, when you go there a conspicuous part of its staff, both technical and managerial, is absent at worksites all over the world.

The common denominator linking many of these activities is water, an indispensable source for mankind. It makes me smile to think that the Company’s registered office in Rome is even on Via del Fiume [River street]! But that’s not all. This year for the first time I attended the Company lunch that Carlo Lotti offers every Christmas to all their employees. Well, the lunch was served on the boat “Tiber”, anchored in the River Tiber, near Castel Sant’Angelo. Here too, we have the same reference to water and the river, the one that the ancient Romans used to call “the River”.

Carlo Lotti has asked me to write a couple of lines by way of introduction. I have done so, and did it not only with great joy but with great emotion and a feeling of admiration and respect for this man and his collaborators, for a firm that has lasted fifty years, which I hope will develop further and for many years to come. I hope that this book will be read by many, especially by young people, and that reading it may light a feeling of pride in knowing how to do things and in doing them well and with sacrifice, the very sacrifice that marked young people after the Second World War, who rebuilt Italy in an incredibly short time, leading it to take its place as one of the eight most important countries in the world.

I hope young people understand that today Italy once more needs rebuilding and can therefore thank Carlo Lotti and his firm for what they teach us in this book.

The book closes with a few pages devoted to art, preceded by the verses of a “poet-engineer”, Leonardo Sinisgalli.I particularly appreciate these pages, owing also to my current post as Chairman of Rome’s Fine Arts Academy: recalling Carlo Lotti’s attention to art, they show us yet again that designing great works of civil engineering is in itself an “art”.They bring to mind the words of another engineer, Giacosa, the designer of the mythical “500”: “to be truly efficient, a car engine must also be beautiful!”

Cesare Romiti

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introduction 1

A COLLECtIVE AdVENtURE

the following pages tell the story of a group of engineers, who, 50 years ago, began wor-king together in the same office, and then decided to form an engineering company that bears my name: C. Lotti e Associati, with its registered office in Rome, at Via del Fiume, a few steps from the tiber. take heed: this book is not about my personal history, but is the tale of a “collective adventure”, initially involving 15 persons and now numbering 200, including engineers, specialists, employees and sundry collaborators.

Without the contribution of these persons, the Firm would not be what it is today: a labora-tory of ideas and projects, the works in its curriculum scattered over four continents. It has made its contribution to solving social problems that trouble many countries, especially in the undeveloped world: hunger, thirst, the need for energy, national debt, unequal markets, natural calamities, climate changes. If today drinking water is available for a few more children on the River Niger or in Indonesia, it is also – taken as a whole - thanks to our Firm.

Inevitably, however, I shall be obliged to talk about myself: especially at the beginning of the tale, when the Firm was just an idea, a dream and then a concrete project, ripening in my head, but still not a reality. It also seems inevitable for me to tell this tale – or at least part of it – in the first person. Indeed, I fear it would be very difficult to transmit to the pen of some “intermediary” the whole wealth of emotions and problems, and sometimes even of doubts, that have accompanied our fifty-year-old adventure.

I ask our readers to understand this choice, which has cost me much effort and not a little embarrassment: much effort because, at a certain age, in looking back over one’s life, it is not easy to avoid the danger of excessive detail; a little embarrassment, because I can see that my awareness of having done good work may be read as self-congratulation. I hope my efforts have been successful and that reading this book will not cause me the embarrassment I fear. If not, I must appeal to the reader’s clemency!

Carlo Lotti

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introduction 2

A SINGLE HUMANItY

Even engineers have a soul. to some this may seem obvious, to others it is an axiom needing to be demonstrated, or - perhaps - a hazardous theory. For me, it is a recent discovery, one that has upset one of the most rooted certainties of my life, according to which I divided humanity into two categories: on the one side those who feel emotions, sentiments and passions; and on the other those who make calculations. Humanity number one creates artists, poets and inconclusive dreamers; number two generates alchemists, information technology experts and (naturally) engineers.

towards the second category, I have always nursed an instinctive suspicion, at the same time acknowledging their practical utility: if the destinies of the world were left to artists, we would already be extinct. In short, I have always considered “men of calculation” – cold, efficient and infallible – as a necessary evil. How this conviction arose in me, I couldn’t say. Perhaps it was only out of envy: as a boy I always got “five” in mathematics, and as a child the only things I ever managed to build were ephemeral sand castles.

thus, my life has unravelled far from numbers, constructions and mathematical models. For years, I have travelled the world as a journalist, selling stories, emotions, and sometimes even dreams: I knew nothing about those who pursued my own nomadic existence, but for the purpose of building dams, roads and water supply mains, works destined to last longer than my articles. then I became aware that even humanity number two was moved by the same curiosity as I, felt the same horror when confronted by wars and injustice, and in the evening often felt the same longing for home.

that’s how I discovered that humanity is not divided into two, but is single; that the pretext for travel may change, but that the stimulus that moves us is the same for all. In short, I understood that even engineers have a soul. From this “conversion” the book you are reading was born. It tells the story of an engineering firm, but is also about the countries that I visited for quite different reasons. I hope I have managed to write it without too many technical mistakes. If you do find some inaccuracy, however, I can only imitate Carlo Lotti and appeal to the reader’s clemency!

Nino Gorio

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