With a tour of the upper part of the mountain, in which the cracks and rocks were evaluated, the Secretariat of Infrastructure of Caldas and the Mayor’s Office of Manzanares determined to give way to the Bellavista sector, where on December 29, 2020 had a major collapse. Since that date, a technical team from the municipal and departmental administration has been working on the recovery of the pass.
Gerardo Duque Osorio, mayor of Manzanares, accompanied the tour and explained that the mountain had problems since December 23. The landslide occurred on the 29th and since that day they work together in the personal area of the Mayor’s Office of Manzanares, of the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Firefighters and Civil Defense. “It is an intense work and after noon on Thursday, January 7, we will be able to partially deliver,” he said.
The coordinator of the Fire Department, Diana González Giraldo, reported that they have been present in the area since December 23, when small landslides began. “We have been with the Mayor of Manzanares and the Risk Management Group doing monitoring. We had personnel located at the top of the collapse to support the backhoe operator, and below to make stop and go for vehicles, “he said.
“As the terrain presents cracks, the monitoring personnel now stand in the front with binoculars and in constant communication with the machinery operator to report the behavior of the collapse. On the 23rd there was a preventive evacuation of the farms located on the slope of the Santo Domingo River, we constantly monitor, pending that there is no damming ”, said the leader of the Fire Department.
The Secretary of Infrastructure of Caldas, Luis Alberto Giraldo Fernández, toured the area of the collapse in the company of machine operators and technical equipment from the Government of Caldas. Once the state of the mountain was evaluated, he pointed out that Bellavista is a site that failed several decades ago, the landslide was contained with a stability work that lasted several years, a large wall with caissons driven into the slope.
“With the downpours and the La Niña phenomenon, the mountain has been experiencing an important movement. With the collapse, more than 30 meters of bench were lost ”, explained Giraldo Fernández. “We are going to demolish the largest stones to avoid the risk of them slipping and falling on the road; with the retro track we will make an additional screen, with a terrace at the top of the road so that there is a ‘fuse’ sector where collapse material can fall, and that it does not fall directly on the road ”, concluded Giraldo Fernández.
The infrastructure secretary added that a pipeline was installed to bring water to the sidewalks, as well as a sewer pipe to control rainwater. Monitoring continues with the area coordinators supervised by the secretariat, in addition to the staff of the Manzanares Mayor’s Office. It will take place from today, but according to the behavior of the mountain, the closure of the road at night is not ruled out.
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