Thursday, June 28, 2007

Back to the Future

Pisa found a stand-up guy or two:

The Leaning Tower of Pisa no longer leans quite so much after a £20 million project to save it was hailed a complete success yesterday.

The tower, which was on the verge of collapse, has been straightened by 18 inches (45 centimetres) returning it to its 1838 position.

"It has straightened a little bit more than we expected, but every little helps," said Prof John Burland, an expert in soil mechanics at Imperial College London, who was the only British member of the 14-strong rescue committee.

....Prof Burland said it could have collapsed "at any moment". However, it took nine years of bureaucratic wrangling before any work was done. "That was the difficult bit, getting the work going," Prof Burland said.

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