- A rockfall buried and damaged the road between the Castaneda and Molina junctions over a length of more than 150 meters on Sunday morning.
- According to the civil engineering office, the road can be cleared and provisionally repaired on Tuesday morning at the earliest.
- The work is expected to take two to three days.
- Almost 400 people in Graubünden’s Calanca Valley are currently cut off from the outside world.
Around 450 people are trapped in the Calanca valley, there is no other road. Mayor Anton Theus is also stuck. A special situation, as he told the “Regionaljournal Graubünden” on Monday. People couldn’t shop, couldn’t go to the post office. The children couldn’t go to school. “You have to postpone what you were planning to do – possibly also a visit to the doctor,” said Theus. Calanca has two or three smaller shops that might still have fresh bread – at the moment.
The community crisis team had already met for a meeting on Monday evening and discussed the situation. The establishment of an airlift is considered as a measure. Think of the Spitex services or the meal service. In the event of a medical emergency, a helicopter flight is definitely an option, possibly even through Rega.
Legend:
A landslide has blocked access to the Calanca Valley between Castaneda and Buseno since Sunday (December 4, 2022).
KEYSTONE/TI-PRESS/SAMUEL GOLAY
Anton Theus said it would not become critical for the population so quickly. Everyone should get through a few days with what people have in their houses. He remembered the road closure in 2006 when the valley was cut off for ten days. There was the heli transport that took people to work.
Next, the situation in the area where the rockslide started will be geologically examined again, explained Christoph Nänni, canton geologist Graubünden, at a local inspection to SRF News. There is a suspicion that individual pieces of rock could still be in motion. “If the situation is safe, we can clear the road first and then repair it so that we can temporarily reopen it by the end of the week,” said Nänni.
Because of the precipitation, around 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, around 600 to 700 cubic meters of rock broke off, the volume of a single-family house, Christoph Nänni continued. “These rocks fell almost in free fall onto a heap of rubble and then hit the road 350 meters below with great force. Part of the rock fell into the Calancasca, part stayed above the road.»
Major damage to the road and retaining walls
An estimated 150 cubic meters of rock remained on the Calanca Valley road. The damage caused by the rock fall is relatively high, especially the walls on the mountain side of the road and the walls on the valley side with built-in lines were destroyed by the rock fall.
Legend:
“The rock is riddled with fine cracks that water can penetrate. This creates pressure and the rock can be blasted away. That’s why the current rainy weather is a problem and it’s no coincidence that the rock has broken away right now,” said Graubünden cantonal geologist Christoph Nänni.
RSI | SRF
Already in 2007 there was a demolition at the same place, said the cantonal geologist. “It’s been going well for 15 years now, and now the next portion has slipped. If something comes up twice in the same place, we now have to take a closer look to see whether there are any further crashes.”
As in all steep mountain valleys, there are avalanches in winter, as well as mudslides and rockfalls, Nänni explained: “We try to keep the roads as safe as possible. But we will never be able to say that there will never be another rockfall in the Calanca valley.”