Critical issues resolved in a few hours: only the Sp 76 in Carpineti closed, one-way alternating with traffic lights on the Sp 513 and the Sp 63. President Giorgio Zanni: “Resources are needed, the State cannot leave the Provinces alone in the face of events like these ”
42 points of the provincial road network were damaged by the intense storms that hit the Reggiano area between 24 and 25 June. The area of the middle Apennines between Vetto, Castelnovo Monti, Carpineti and Baiso – up to Vezzano sul Crostolo, San Polo d’Enza and Canossa – is 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, practicability was guaranteed in a few hours, thanks to the commitment of the Provincial staff and the companies that intervened in the maintenance of the Southern Department, the one that reaches from the foothills to the Apennine ridge – explains President Giorgio Zanni – At the moment only the Sp 76 remains temporarily closed to transit towards the Carpineti Castle, which however remains reachable from the south via the stretch of provincial road not affected by landslides, while there are 8 points where you are temporarily traveling in an alternating one-way direction to guarantee the greatest safety, in only two cases regulated by traffic lights: 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 technicians and the director of the Province’s 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 the 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 regulation upstream and channeling of the water downstream, 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 criticality will be definitively resolved”.
“The theme, in fact, is not only that of 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 add up in fact to the seventy or so critical issues that were already affecting our territory, for a total of around 11 million, for which we have long been urging the allocation of the necessary resources: 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 the state of emergency, which is the responsibility of the Council of Ministers on the basis of the assessments of the Civil Protection Department, would certainly be a precious and decisive help for our territories. We therefore strongly hope, both as a Province and as affected Reggio Emilia municipalities, that this can materialize as quickly as possible.”
