| Work Detail |
There were new landslides in both cities. The team of professionals in charge of the plan will submit reports.
Due to the heavy rains of a few days ago, in the Department of La Paz there were new landslides in the canyon of the high waterfront of Santa Elena, where the water saturates the profile of the same and a deep sinkhole disabled a sector of Rocamora street, in the Fatima neighborhood; In addition to having removed a shed from a Belgrano street club and leaving a house in the area at risk. Also on the same date in Diamante there were landslides that affected two families, which were assisted by the Volunteer Firefighters of the city, although they should not be evacuated.
Faced with the risk generated by the constant movements of the soils in the riverside sector of both locations, in April the development of a project to stabilize the affected areas under the orbit of the Entre Ríos Hydraulics Directorate was announced. Eduardo Díaz, an engineer in Water Resources and a PhD in Geology, is the coordinator of the team of professionals from different disciplines who is in charge of the preparation of this plan, carried out with funding from the Federal Investment Council (IFC), and told ONE that these days will deliver the draft of the works that can be carried out in Diamond to the Minister of Planning, Infrastructure of the Province, Luis Benedetto. And in a few weeks the one corresponding to Santa Elena will culminate.
“We have already presented the first report, which has to do with the basic studies of Diamond and the next stage is the basic project that will be available on Monday in Hydraulics and will be held by Minister Benedetto. Soon the report of basic studies of Santa Elena will be and in a few more weeks the report, or the prefeasibility, of the basic project of Santa Elena will be ready. Both projects, with several alternatives of works, have to be put to the consideration of society in public presentations that we are going to make in Diamante at the time, and then in Santa Elena, where the whole community will internalize what the ideas of the same and based on the opinions we follow the final stage, which is the executive project to be called for tender, ”he told UNO.
The engineer recalled that in the 2000s the Provincial Executing Unit (PEU) financed the stabilization works of the canyons of the two cities, and observed: “In Diamond it did not finance the total of the project that was elaborated at the time, only He did the work in coincidence where the port itself is. Where the work was completed there were no inconveniences. We are now working on a 500 meter canyon front. In Santa Elena, work was carried out from the hospital area and along Rocamora Street, but the work that was built was incomplete with respect to the executive project that had been submitted. In four places the surface drains worked smoothly, but by modifying the project, underground drains that should have driven the water in depth drained into the ravine and landslides were activated that should not have occurred. When that happened, not only part of the ravine fell but the channels were taken, ”he said, and said:“ Before the work was inaugurated there was a landslide ”.
“Geologically, the canyons of Diamante and Santa Elena respond to two different phenomena, but from the point of view of activation of the landslides they respond to a single cause, which has to do with the infiltration of rainwater, black wells and 50% of the water in the drinking water network, which has a very important loss because the pipes are old. Then they saturate the soil profile and in the case of Diamond there is what we call a geological or geotechnical unit 4, which behaves like clays that when saturated, lose bearing capacity and the material that is above slides, ”he explained, and stressed: "The project basically consists of drainage structures to prevent water from infiltrating and reaching that level."
In turn, he said that the options in The White City consist of making horizontal drainage systems that would decant the water and take it to the front of the ravine: “In the front of the ravine there are three alternatives: in the profiling is the placement of the It is called a blanket with gabions and a whole parquizado to take advantage of that as a new public space that the community can use and serve as an additional tourist alternative. It will be a pedestrian waterfront with a system of construction and implementation of green spaces for recreational use and not for the movement and movement of heavy vehicles. ” Held.
Regarding the costs of this work, they will be around 320 million approximately - considering the current value of the dollar -, depending on the alternative that is decided to carry out: “There is an alternative of civil engineering, we have another architectural landscape and another drainage to avoid the problems of concentrating the flow, ”he said, and said that the investment that should be available for Santa Elena is still under study.
Regarding the execution deadlines, he indicated that the delivery of the projects will be finalized in mid or late October: “The Province has to take that project, obtain funds to finance it and call for bids for construction. It is not a cheap work nor will it be solved in the short term, what can be done is preventing water from entering the profile and saturating the area where these dry soils have bearing capacity, ”he said.
He also said: “Depending on all things going well, that we deliver the project in the planned time, that the Province obtains funds from the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Financial Fund for the Development of the Countries of the Basin del Plata (Fonplata), or the Andean Development Corporation, which are agencies that can finance this work, or that the national state takes over the project, is called for tender and when the bidding documents are prepared there is a presentation period of analysis that can take about four more months. And there begins the work, which can take between a year or two years, starting in the most critical areas. ”
Finally, the specialist stressed: “It is important to clarify that not only do we have to build the work, but we also have allocations of funds within the numbers so that the municipality and the Province are responsible for monitoring and controlling the works, since then it happens that there is no money available to control water levels, drains, protection in some parts, and inconveniences arise. ” And he concluded: "The Municipality of Diamante can make an agreement with an agency of the Conicet, which is in the city itself, and work together with the Hydraulics Directorate of the Province." |
