Gardesana Road Damaged Again by Landslide Near Riva, Italy
Gardesana, a road in hopeless decline. The latest, terrifying confirmation came last night, shortly after 6 p.m., when once again, a piece of Rocchetta struck the road. This time, the mountain collapsed just a few hundred meters from Riva, wedging itself between the first and second tunnels.
The alarm was raised by a motorist heading towards Limone, who had just passed and noticed what had happened behind him. Fortunately, it appears there were no other vehicles behind him, although to be certain, it will be necessary today for the Trento Fire Brigade divers to immerse themselves at the point where the material entered the water and also check the submerged landslide.
Damage and site interventions
Four, perhaps five hundred cubic meters of rock suddenly detached from the sheer cliff face of the mountain, about eighty meters above the roadway, dragging in its terrible fall towards the lake a section of the other doomed victim, the old Ponale road. A frightening rain of rocks, among which a gigantic boulder stands out for its size, ended up surprisingly stopped on the edge of the road that the fury of the landslide failed to tear away.
Immediately on the scene, law enforcement and firefighters arrived, quickly isolating the area. Within minutes, Riva’s mayor, Cesare Malossini, and his deputy, Pietro Matteotti, also arrived.
Current situation and prospects
Once again, this is a blow to what is undoubtedly the most at-risk road in Trentino, which in recent years has probably earned itself a place in the national top ten of the undeservedly nicknamed “least stable” routes.
And to think that ANAS, for the Christmas holidays, decided to reopen Gardesana at the point that, just a few weeks ago, a few kilometers south of Limone in Brescian territory, had been affected by another major landslide.
However, the new landslide has overshadowed any good news for the people of Limone (transit will be allowed from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. until January 3, but in case of rain, the transit ban will be immediately reinstated), as it blocks their access by car to Riva.
Once again, and for quite some time, they will be able to reach the Trentino shore of Lake Garda by boat. In the coming days, assessments by provincial technicians and geologists, along with regular operations of clearing and remediation of the area, will take place.
Simultaneously, the study of definitive solutions will begin to reopen the road to traffic in the shortest possible time, but mainly, to make the affected section of Gardesana, already compromised by numerous ailments, permanently safe.