Immediately after the seismic event (started on May 20th, 2012) which struck the Padana Flat area between the municipalities of Ferrara, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Bologna (Emilia-Romagna Region), Mantova (Lombardia Region) and Rovigo (Veneto Region), an ENEA team of experts (Maurizio Indirli, Bruno Carpani, Elena Candigliota, Alessandra Gugliandolo, Francesco Immordino, Giuseppe Marghella, Anna Marzo, Giuseppe Nigliaccio, Alessandro Poggianti, Maria-Anna Segreto) supported the Italian Civil Defense, in order to perform prompt investigations regarding the safety evaluation of different typologies of structures (bridges, industrial factories, residential houses, etc.) made by various kinds of materials (masonry, reinforced concrete, precast/prestressed reinforced concrete, mixed). General information is given in several preliminary reports [among them, Decanini et al., 2012). In particular, this article is devoted to the behaviour analysis of precast/prestressed reinforced concrete (p/p. r.c.) construction, widely used in the affected area since the second half of the last century, trying to deepen some crucial aspects of the matter.
