Gardesana Landslides Prompt Tunnel Construction to Ensure Road Safety
Only bad news arrives from the western Gardesana stretch where yet another landslide struck on Friday evening. The first, undoubtedly the worst, concerns the future reopening of the road to traffic and is closely linked to the second, which relates to the extremely unstable conditions of the mountain overlooking the scenic route.
According to Civil Protection Chief Claudio Bortolotti, these conditions push towards a definitive solution to the problem—specifically, the construction of a tunnel that will permanently remove traffic from that very dangerous section of road.
What are the timelines for constructing the bypass inside Rocchetta? At least one and a half years. “A timeframe,” explains Engineer Bortolotti, “that, if respected, will set a record. We must not forget, in fact, that the tunnel will be at least 1.2 kilometers long and that before starting construction (certainly the least time-consuming phase), an executive project must be drafted, numerous permits obtained, and finally, an EU tender issued.
Currently, as a preliminary idea, I believe the tunnel could enter the mountain near the intersection between Gardesana itself and the old Ponale and channel traffic out near Ponale.” One and a half years: a record time for technicians, an eternity that worries those who will have to endure the inconveniences of closure, since, in the meantime, only rescue vehicles will be allowed to transit on what remains of Gardesana. The ferry times for rescue operations are certainly too long.
For this reason, in the coming hours, the mayors of Limone and Riva will meet with technicians and officials from the Province to carefully evaluate the situation and explore all solutions to minimize these disruptions as much as possible.
“I realize that this hypothesis may cause some doubts,” continues Bortolotti, “but the conditions of that section of Rocchetta’s slope are such that making Gardesana below 100% safe is impossible. Therefore, the only feasible solution is a radical and definitive one.
This stretch of road will be permanently closed to vehicle passage, it will continue to be monitored, and maybe it could become a scenic walkway, but it will no longer be used by vehicles. These are just hypotheses, of course, because the final decisions will be made in the future.”
The other bad news, indeed, is the confirmation of what Engineer Bortolotti said: the material that fell on Friday evening is only a small part compared to the over two thousand meters that still threaten to fall at any moment and cause another deadly blow to the old Ponale and the road below.
The damages, in short, are not yet over. “There is a pinnacled, large boulder,” explains the Civil Protection officer, “that is still unstable and which we plan to demolish promptly.”
