Carlo Semenza (engineer)

He was the designer of 15 major dams, amongst them the Vajont Dam, the highest dam in the world until the early 1960s. In 1963, a major landslide led to a tidal wave of more than 200 metres (220 yd; 660 ft) instead of the calculated maximum height of 20 metres (22 yd; 66 ft) of water, overtopping the dam while the lake water level was lowered only by 25 metres (27 yd; 82 ft) and led to the destruction of the town Longarone and damage to other villages, resulting in around 2,000 deaths. The dam, however, withstood this tsunami virtually undamaged and held the rest of the threatening mudslide back. Semenza was subsequently posthumously exonerated by the court of L'Aquila from responsibility in causing the catastrophe.

Biography

Semenza was present at the inauguration of the Vajont Dam, which was to be his last work before retirement. On the morning of Sunday 29 October 1961, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in his home, shortly after returning from mass in Lido di Venezia, and died the following morning. He was buried in Venice.

At SADE his role was filled by the engineer Alberico Biadene, his deputy.

In respect of the Vajont Dam disaster, the court of L'Aquila exonerated him posthumously.