Part of a road tunnel collapses in Riddes VS
Published: Sunday, Feb 4th 2024, 21:40
Updated At: Sunday, Feb 4th 2024, 21:40
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Part of the roof of a road tunnel in Isérables, in the municipality of Riddes in Valais, collapsed early on Saturday evening. There were no injuries. The tunnel is expected to remain closed for months, perhaps even longer. A detour has been set up.
"It's not a concrete ceiling that has fallen, because it's a tunnel that was dug into the rock," a spokesperson for the Valais cantonal police told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Sunday. He was confirming information from various media outlets.
Vincent Pellissier, head of the cantonal mobility department, told Rhône FM radio station that around ten cubic meters had sunk into the tunnel at once. Pellissier was on site on Sunday morning. He assumes that the tunnel will remain closed for months, "perhaps even years".
And Pellissier assumes that the storms in December and the mild temperatures of the last few days played a role in the collapse. The tunnel is over 50 years old and was dug "into a geologically complex rock face".
It connects Isérables with La Tsoumaz, above Mayens-de-Riddes, at an altitude of over 1100 meters. A detour has been set up, but heavy vehicles cannot use it, according to the police.
The restriction mainly affects the residents of the region - Isérables has around 800 inhabitants - and the tourists expected in La Tzoumaz. That's another 800 this coming weekend, as the tourist office reported in the "19:30" program on French-speaking Swiss television RTS.
A concept has been drawn up to facilitate traffic within the village of Isérables, as the municipality of Riddes emphasized in a press release.
Public transport will be maintained via the Riddes train station, the Riddes-Isérables cable car and then by bus from Isérables to La Tzoumaz and vice versa, according to the press release.
©Keystone/SDA
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