Mallorca flood defences past halfway after 13 deaths
Mallorca’s Sant Llorenç has completed more than half its flood defence work after a 2018 flood killed 13 people. On Thursday, 8 October, crews are widening the bridge where the town’s bypass crosses the stream known as the Torrent de ses Planes. The work comes ahead of the eighth anniversary of the flood on 9 October 2018.
More room for floodwater
The bridge is being expanded from four openings for water to ten. Almost all the new openings are in place; each measures 5.7 metres wide and 4.4 metres high. Crews are also building more than 200 metres of reinforced wall along the stream to prevent it overflowing. That part of the work is due to finish in a few weeks.
Llorenç Galmés, president of the Council of Mallorca, says the finished bridge could handle around 500 tonnes of water per second in a storm like the one in 2018. He says technicians believe the stream could already handle the amount of water that built up during that rainfall.
When the road could reopen
Work began in April and costs nine million euros. The Council of Mallorca expects the road across the bridge to reopen to traffic between January and February next year.
More on this topic: Traffic on Mallorca
Topics: Traffic · Town & community
Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com