Moving the Kindu war memorial

This memorial was realized in the early 1960s to honor 13 Italian airmen murdered in 1961 in Kindu (former Belgian Congo), where they had landed to supply the local UN base.

The sculptures on the travertine slabs covering the four faces were made by Pio Manzù and the obelisk was placed in the gardens in front of the Fiumicino airport.

In the mid-1980s the local administration began operations began to build a rail terminal within the air terminal. It soon became clear that the tracks of the access ramp would pass right where the monument was located.
It was hence necessary to move the monument without demolishing nor damaging it.

The contractor gathered information from the stone-working machines manufacturers. Pellegrini, together with Luigi Madrigali – a pioneer in the use of diamond wire in marble quarries – proposed to use the diamond wire technology to section the obelisk at its base and move it en bloc to its new location, lifting it only a few centimeters off the ground.

This was the first application of diamond wire in the cutting of reinforced concrete in Italy. It was such a groundbreaking event that the specialized press described it as a “surgical operation”.
The cut was performed using a Diamant Bar saw driven by a 60Hp diesel engine. A series of deflection flywheels allowed the diamond wire to be guided in the preliminary execution of two ‘windows’ in two parallel faces of the obelisk (which was empty inside). Two girders that would support the monument during the cutting at the base and the subsequent movement were then inserted into the two faces.