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The intense rains generated runoff that overflowed the drains and generated pressure on these buildings. It happened shortly before midnight on the corner with Peredo. Half the road of the avenue was cut off. Changes in routes of 10 bus lines.
A strong rainstorm caused a sinkhole of about 30 meters on Vélez Sársfield Avenue, near the Pocito real estate development. (Pedro Castillo / The Voice)
The collapse occurred during the strong storm that hit the city of Córdoba in the late hours of Sunday. The sinkhole destroyed part of the sidewalk and a section of the slow lane on Vélez Sársfield Avenue, at the intersection with Ángelo de Peredo Street.
Temporary in Córdoba capital: intense rainfall left 30 evacuees and a sinkhole
According to the statement from the Municipality of Córdoba, “the collapse is caused by the construction of a retaining wall of a private work that weakened a storm drain, which gave way to the volume of liquids that entered due to the rains.”
The private work is the Pocito real estate development, by Grupo Proaco. According to its president, Lucas Salim, the heavy rains generated runoff that overflowed the drains and put pressure on the “cast” walls.
A strong rainstorm caused a sinkhole of about 30 meters on Vélez Sársfield Avenue, near the Pocito real estate development. (Pedro Castillo / La Voz)
Strong rain storm caused a sinkhole of about 30 meters on Vélez Sársfield Avenue, near the Pocito real estate development. (Pedro Castillo / La Voz)
“When you make parking subfloors, the technique used is cast reinforced concrete walls, which are built from the natural ground level to excavate and work on the other side. They are structures that have anchors, which are tensioners that support the wall. We had already done 60 percent and until now there had been no problems, what we had was a short section that was left open and since the storm drains could not cope, they undermined that retaining wall, which gave way," Salim told La Voz.
Temporary in Alta Gracia. They are working to repair the damage (Municipality of Alta Gracia).
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Cast walls are a fairly widespread construction technique in works of a certain magnitude. They were used, for example, for the construction of the tunnel under the Urban Woman and the closure of the northern arch of Circunvalación Avenue, in the city of Córdoba.
Play VideoSocavón on Vélez Sarsfield Avenue
The businessman highlighted that there was only material damage, that there were no injuries or injuries. The damage was concentrated in the lost wall itself and the impact on the road.
“What is affected is a hand, a section of about 3 meters. An operation was mounted with the people from Road Works and Infrastructure and Urban Development of the Municipality of Córdoba to form a contingency committee and from there communications were triggered to service providers, such as Aguas Cordobesas, and Epec, although the energy was never cut in the sector,” said Salim.
The secretary of municipal community security and prevention, Claudio Vignetta, confirmed that there were no injuries in the sector, fortunately. “At the time the collapse occurred, luckily, there were no vehicles or pedestrians passing by,” he said.
This Tuesday the contingency committee will meet again. The municipality only issued a statement from its Press area and promised to offer a more detailed version after this meeting in which it will be possible to "see how the work continues." In particular, it is expected to know if the development companys explanations are valid for the municipal technicians and if there was some type of incorrect or negligent maneuver that led to the undermining of the roads support.
Flooded houses in Córdoba (courtesy)
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Meanwhile, half of the Vélez Sársfield road was cut off. Early in the morning, municipal inspectors implemented a total preventive shutdown in the sector to prevent the entry of vehicles, especially large vehicles, buses and trolleybuses, which must modify their routes. Then, Civil Defense and Traffic Police personnel were present and during yesterday morning they completed the analysis to determine the conditions of the ground and it was decided to maintain the cut in one road and give way on the adjacent side only to light traffic.
In turn, route changes were defined on several bus lines. They affect lines 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, A1, 50, 51 and 63, which will have to make a detour through different streets in the area to avoid passing through the sinkhole area.
WORK STOPPED AND DAMAGE EVALUATION
The municipality reported, in turn, that “the work is preventively paralyzed.”
There would have been no structural damage to the real estate complex, according to Salim. “The only thing was the breakage and the entry of water into the subsoil and the damage to the cast wall, which is about 15 meters. But it is a temporary wall, which is used to make the foundations of the building. Once you have excavated, and the subsoils are finished, that is hidden,” explained the developer.
Pocitos work includes several stages. According to Salim, what has the greatest degree of progress are the corporate building, the commercial premises on Vélez Sársfield and the parking for 300 vehicles, with deliveries scheduled for the second half of 2024. What is still under construction are the towers household. In that location, Proaco has its Pocito Social Life project underway, which includes 35-story towers wrapped in a glass skin façade with mixed residential, corporate and commercial uses. According to the company, the residential apartments will start from level 14, they are typologies that will range from 40 to 82 square meters. A large shopping center and a multi-space terrace are planned, as well as several common use spaces.
The units are for sale: a one-bedroom apartment is published on the Pocito website at 73 million pesos and a two-bedroom apartment at 118 million. The garages are quoted between 16 and 18 million pesos.
Lucas Salim, leader of the development group Proaco. (Ramiro Pereyra /La Voz)
Lucas Salim, leader of the development group Proaco. (Ramiro Pereyra /La Voz)
ANOTHER Striking CLOMBLE
The sinkhole on Vélez Sársfield Avenue joins other notable road collapses. The last previous one was the one that occurred on Jorge Kissling Street, in the IPV Argüelo neighborhood, where a waste collection truck was sunk in a sinkhole and heavy machines had to be used to remove it. Repair of drains, damage to water and other service connections and the new roadway were completed last week. |
