An aerial view of the construction site on the state road. © FFW Latsch
A car occupied by four police officers almost drove into a rock avalanche in the Vinschgau Valley (South Tyrol) on Sunday night.
Laces - Construction workers use jackhammer excavators to tackle the rocks, which weigh up to 90 tonnes and have thundered onto the state road through the Vinschgau Valley near the South Tyrolean municipality of Laces (Italy). A policeman almost drove into the rockfall with three comrades in a Fiat 500 car.
"The safety and clean-up work after the massive rockfall is in full swing, everything is being done to reopen the Vinschgau state road to traffic as quickly and safely as possible," reports the Laces fire brigade on Facebook after numerous storms in Italy recently. The bypass is closed, which means that traffic from Austria and Germany via the Reschen Pass as well as from the Engadine and the Stelvio Pass in the direction of Merano and Bolzano through the community of 5000 inhabitants is tormented. The result: traffic jams, noise and exhaust fumes.
Fiat almost crashed into giant rocks on South Tyrolean holiday road: video now shows the full extent
The road is to be cleared by Friday (26 May), but safety work is also taking place on the rocky slope. A temporary earthen embankment will also protect the road and the cycle path next door from further falling boulders. In the medium term, however, a solid stone wall is to be erected to stop further boulders. The South Tyrolean provincial government has provided 3.5 million euros for this purpose.
Here one of the rocks in South Tyrol is smashed. © FFW Latsch
South Tyrol/Italy: Massive wall to stop boulders in the future
"In this way, we want to intervene quickly and purposefully to ensure the safety of road users on the busy section," Daniel Alfreider, State Councillor for Mobility, is quoted as saying by stol.it. Work on a fixed protective wall is to begin as early as Monday, according to Alfreider. The wall is to be 100 metres long and around five metres high, and a protective barrier with elastic rockfall protection fences is planned on the rock face.
It was not the first landslide in South Tyrol in recent weeks. One rock thundered down to the terrace of a kindergarten, another rushed into the road in the Ahrntal Valley shortly after cars had passed the site, as a video shows.
