REGGIO EMILIA – There were 42 points of the provincial road network damaged by the intense storms that hit the Reggio Emilia area between June 24 and 25. The area of the middle Apennines between Vetto, Castelnovo Monti, Carpineti and Baiso – up to Vezzano sul Crostolo, San Polo d’Enza and Canossa – was the most affected.
This is what emerges from the survey carried out by the Infrastructure Service of the Province of Reggio Emilia on the approximately one thousand kilometers of road network under its responsibility. The damage estimate has been being compiled since the first hours and will be concluded in the next few days – in the hope that new landslides will not be triggered which, as is known, can occur even days after adverse meteorological phenomena – to then be transmitted to the Regional Civil Protection Agency.
“In the vast majority of cases, the road was reopened in just a few hours, thanks to the commitment of the Province staff and the companies that intervened in the maintenance of the Southern Section, which runs from the foothills to the Apennine ridge,” explains President Giorgio Zanni. “At the moment, only the Sp 76 remains temporarily closed to traffic for the Castello di Carpineti, which can still be reached from the south via the stretch of the provincial road not affected by landslides, while there are 8 points where traffic is temporarily in one-way traffic to ensure maximum safety, regulated by traffic lights in only two cases: on the Sp 513 in Vetto, a hundred meters after the intersection with the Sp 10 for Parma, and on the Sp 63 between La Strada and Casina.”
Of the 42 critical issues currently identified by the technicians and the manager of the Provincial Infrastructure Service, Valerio Bussei, the most challenging ones concern the Sp 76 in Carpineti and Ponte Secchia di Baiso, where as is known the same problem as a year ago has arisen again. “Since then, together with the Municipality and Region, we have planned an intervention worth around half a million and found the necessary funding – continues President Giorgio Zanni – The works, aimed at better upstream management and downstream channeling of the water, were already scheduled for this summer: this new and violent wave of bad weather unfortunately arrived shortly before, but once the construction site is completed this historic critical issue will be definitively resolved”.
“The issue, in fact, is not only that of the increasingly numerous extreme weather events due to climate change, but also of resources – concludes the president of the Province of Reggio Emilia – The new emergencies caused by these latest waves of bad weather are in fact added to the seventy critical issues that already existed in our territory, for a total of approximately 11 million, for which we have been urging the allocation of the necessary resources for some time: it is in fact unthinkable that they can be supported by the Provinces alone, which should not be left alone by the State in the face of events like these. The declaration of a state of emergency, which is the responsibility of the Council of Ministers on the basis of the assessments of the Department of Civil Protection, would certainly be a valuable and decisive help for our territories. We therefore strongly hope, both as a Province and as the affected Reggio Emilia Municipalities, that this can materialize as quickly as possible”.
Bad weather in the Apennines: the damage count and the point on landslides. VIDEO
