The cleaning of the spillways of the Guadalope River as it passes through Alcañiz began this Monday. The works will consist of the removal of the remains of vegetation, after which it will be determined whether it is necessary to repair the affected sections. Similarly, the footbridges over the river will also be intervened if they are found to be damaged.
The Alcañiz City Council has received a grant from the Aragonese Water Institute (IAA) to launch this action, which will focus on the elimination of plant material that has accumulated as a result of the different floods and phenomena storms that occurred in spring and summer. The project has a budget of 42,000 euros, as reported yesterday by the Deputy Mayor of the City Council, Javier Baigorri, who pointed out that the grant received will cover 80% of the cost of the intervention.
The work has a two-month execution period, during which time all these materials must be removed, the surroundings cleared, the aspect of the weirs and footbridges improved and the watercourse cleared. In the same way, within the framework of the same project, the beams and fences of the footbridges will also be repaired, they too affected by the damage caused by the entrainment of water.
justification
“In this way, we are responding to a request that we received both in plenary session of the municipal council and from the inhabitants themselves”, explained the first deputy mayor, who visited one of the sections in which the action started yesterday morning.
As reported by the city council, “the first task force is already working on the bank at the bottom of the hill, in front of San Francisco, in the dam which is in the worst condition and most of the elements need to be replaced. “. In this sense, Baigorri indicated that “the first task will be to clean all the accumulated reeds that proliferate in these times of drought in the Guadalope’s own bed. From there, the cleaning itself will be undertaken.
Once the remains of vegetation have been removed, the project will continue with the repair of the affected sections of fence and the replacement or reformation of the wooden slats of the pedestrian walkway which have been torn out and washed away by the flow of the river.
The action pursues a complete conditioning which, in addition, “will serve to allow paths, paths and platforms with which it will be possible to more easily access the dams in the event that floods such as those that have occurred would happen again,” Baigorri said. . In this first dam, about fifteen wooden planks and a total of 80 meters of fence are counted for its replacement.
Likewise, in the second dam, downstream of the river towards the bullring, the project proposes the same type of work “although the volume of vegetation is much smaller, access is easier and the conditions” of the path round They are minor, according to municipal sources.
As estimated by the project, in this case the slats of the pedestrian platform will also be replaced, as well as about ten meters of fence, which will complete the intervention on the two dams.
The weather forecast indicates that the drought in the region will continue in the coming weeks, so it is estimated that the flow of the Guadalope River will not increase significantly, which will help the work to continue without problems.
The action was awarded to the company Engineering and Global Techniques for Environmental Resolution, based in Zaragoza.
bank maintenance
The cleaning that started yesterday with the cleaning of the two spillways is in addition to the maintenance contract for the banks of the Guadalope River, which was recently awarded and is already underway, in this case to clean and secure the banks and walks of the Guadalope as it passes through the urban area, which will guarantee better transitability.
The council reported that after the first weeks of work, it has already been possible to recover the pedestrian crossing in some inaccessible places after the summer storms, as well as to clean up and significantly open up the environments in which a large number weed
Approximately 95,000 euros per year will be invested by the Town Hall for these daily tasks of conservation and maintenance of meadows, gardens and other green spaces. Duties will include pruning, replacement, clearing, paid irrigation and other agricultural and forestry work, as well as the conservation and maintenance of irrigation systems and street furniture, including litter bins and benches. .