After the impressive bad weather this weekend, work to repair the A13 was able to begin on Monday. As a reminder, on Friday evening, a section of the motorway with a length of around 200 meters was washed away by water in Graubünden, between Lostallo and Mesocco. A closure of the road “for months” was then mentioned by the police. But, on the sidelines of the work which began on Monday, the Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) wanted to temper these worrying forecasts. A “partial commissioning of the A13” should be possible “within three weeks”, he said in a press release.
Concretely, it will first be necessary to work to redirect the waters of the Moesa, the river which had overflowed, into their bed. Work “essential before any restoration task along the A13”, which should last until the end of the week. Secondly, the backfilling of the washed-out section could begin, “with the aim of being able to open a construction track to traffic on two lanes, in July”.
Pending a reopening, users of the north-south axis were invited to take the A2 motorway and therefore the Gotthard tunnel, or the Simplon and Great Saint-Bernard roads. A situation which worries in the canton of Uri, where the northern entrance to the tunnel is located and where the impact of traffic jams is normally already significant.
But, aware of the problem, FEDRO took measures. The nighttime closures of the Gotthard planned for this week and the following ones have been canceled and the drilling work on the second tube has been suspended, “in order to reduce their possible influence on the existing tube”. The office also specifies “constantly observe the evolution of traffic on alternative routes and communicate with the cantons of Graubünden, Uri, Ticino and Valais”.
