Nine interventions already completed or still underway for a total of 12.7 million euros. And others in the start-up and planning phase which bring the total to over 18.5 million. The works along the Sillaro stream, in the hamlet of Sesto Imolese, have been going on for over a year now. Taking stock of the construction sites, in particular those already completed, is Claudia Manuelli, of the regional agency for territorial security and civil protection, in a film that is part of a series of videos in which the technicians of the Region tell what has been done, what is being done and what will be done to secure the rivers of Emilia-Romagna after the May 2023 flood.
In Via Merlo, in particular, the first route took place at the beginning of the month. And it caused the flooding of Conselice and Spazzate Sassatelli. Two weeks later, the second wave of bad weather led to its reopening.
“The reconstruction of the embankment was carried out initially using boulders to interrupt the flow of water – continues Manuelli –. And subsequently suitable earthy material taken from the Sillaro floodplains was used to reconstruct the actual embankment. In addition , the embankment was consolidated through the insertion of steel sheet piles and the protection of the low bank with material that served to avoid erosion by the flow of water”.
Further downstream from the intervention in via Merlo, near the provincial bridge of via Cardinala, work was carried out to lower the floodplains to facilitate the flow of water. A “decisive” operation, according to Manuelli, also because it allowed the area in question to be used as a loan quarry for the construction and reconstruction of the collapsed embankments on the Idice torrent.
But the effect of the transit of the flood had also caused extensive damage to the lower banks of the embanked sections of the Sillaro torrent, a circumstance which made it necessary to carry out an important vegetation management action up to the point where it flows into the Reno river.
Going upstream instead, the Sillaro torrent was affected by various erosion phenomena near Via Case Nuove and Ladello. “In these points, the interventions were mainly the reconstruction of part of the embankments affected by the flood – reconstructs the regional technician –. Reconstruction which was carried out with material found on site plus the use of boulders for the first closure of the embankment routes “.
Even further upstream of this stretch is the area between the bridges of via Dozza and Bettola. “Here too, the Sillaro was affected by the effects of the 2023 flood – concludes Manuelli –, so much so that a further intervention was carried out which served to remove the numerous floating material that had deposited on the floodplains and also to reconstruct the parts of the embankment which were subsequently damaged precisely to the effects of small overtopping and the transit of the flood itself”.
The hamlets of Sesto Imolese, Spazzate Sassatelli, Sasso Morelli and San Prospero were the areas of the city most affected by the double flood of May 2023 with a few hundred displaced people who were able to return to their homes only after the flood had receded.
