Leaning Tower of Pisa continues long path toward vertical

ROME – The Leaning Tower of Pisa is not leaning so much anymore.

After more than two decades of efforts to straighten it, engineers said the famed Tuscan bell tower has recovered 1.57 inches more and is in better structural health than predicted.

ANSA news agency quoted Nunziante Squeglia, a consultant to the international committee monitoring the tilt, as saying that while the progressive recovery of tilt is good news, the overall structural health of the tower is more important.

The 12th-century tower reopened to the public in 2001 after being closed for more than a decade to let workers reduce its slant. By using hundreds of tons of lead counterweights at the base and extracting soil from under the foundations, engineers initially shaved 17 inches off the lean.