Urgent safety work ordered for Sierre and Chippis
Published: Wednesday, Aug 28th 2024, 17:30
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Following the floods at the end of June, the Valais State Council wants to secure the Sierre and Chippis areas quickly. It ordered urgent measures to be taken and activated a clause that exempts the work from the ordinary planning procedure.
The Valais government took this decision "in view of the increased risk of such events recurring due to global warming", as it wrote in a communiqué on Wednesday. At the end of June 2024, the Rhone overflowed its banks in Sierre and Chippis above the railroad bridge on the right bank. The industrial site and several residential buildings were flooded.
Despite the repair work carried out since then, the risk of renewed flooding is practically the same as before the flood, the State Council wrote. And the work "must be carried out during the period of low water", i.e. in the winter of 2024-2025, otherwise it would have to be postponed by a year.
Two bridges in sight
In order to be able to act quickly, the State Council made use of the general police clause, which makes it possible to exempt works that are in the public interest from a public requirement. This allows the removal of the railroad bridge connecting the industrial area of Chippis to the Swiss railroad network and the raising and renovation of the road bridge between Sierre and Chippis. Both represent "obstacles to the flow of water".
The railroad bridge can either be dismantled or rebuilt so that it can be raised in the event of flooding: "The choice of variant depends on the decisions of the company that owns the structure," explains the canton.
At the end of June 2024, the canton of Valais was hit by two intense rainfall events in which two people disappeared in the side valleys. There was also considerable damage in the mountains and on the Rhone plain.
©Keystone/SDA
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