Bulldozers at work in Cogne to rebuild the road washed away by the water
But the damage is "massive". This was stated by the president of the Aosta Valley Renzo Testolin and the councilor Davide Sapinet. Such "critical" situations, they assure, had not been seen "even during the flood of 2000"
AOSTA – The construction site to restore the main road connection to Cogne started in record time, but the “damage is extensive”: the road was literally “taken away” by the water in three sections. Taking stock of the state of the regional road for the town of theVal d’Aosta most affected by last weekend’s bad weather are the leaders of the Valle d’Aosta Region ‘Aosta, president and regional councilor for public works, respectively Renzo Testolin and Davide Sapinet.
“SO NOT EVEN DURING THE FLOOD OF 2000”
“Valle d’Aosta reacted immediately by setting up the construction site on the road to Cogne, a few hours after the wave of bad weather. The damage is extensive, the torrent has caused a series of situations particularly critical which had not been of such magnitude even during the 2000 flood.” This was said by the president of the Valle d’Aosta Region, Renzo Testolin, and the regional councilor for public works, Davide Sapinet, speaking of the regional road to Cogne made more impassable taken from the flooding of the Grand Eyvia stream, in the night between Saturday and Sunday.
THE THREE POINTS WHERE THE ROAD NO LONGER EXISTS
Restoration work has already begun on Sunday morning and a route has already been created for the passage of construction vehicles in the first damaged section, filling in the part previously invaded by the torrent. There are three critical points where the road was completely washed away by water. The first two are located upstream from the Chevril bridge, which is being reconstructed , but the construction site did not suffer significant damage. A passage for construction vehicles has already been created in the first section.
Since yesterday morning, work has been underway on the second section, where for 150 meters the fury of the water has completely undermined the slope on which the road stood. Now the stream flows almost 20 meters below the road surface and has completely changed its course. The vehicles are working to divert the stream back into its original bed. “These are preparatory activities, necessary to consolidate the foot of the eroded slope and to create a driveway for construction vehicles only, to be able to access the upstream sections – explains the Region in a note -. Any subsequent restoration activity of the road system is conditioned by the activities of moving the river bed and consolidating the foot of the slope, in order to protect it from new erosions”.
The third section of road removed is located in the Lexert tunnel. The roadway was damaged for several meters and the flood of the torrent demolished the banks and part of the counterbank wall, leaving various accumulations of material and deep erosions along the route.