Defence work built to mitigate the hydrogeological dangers looming over the village of Ciardes in the Vinschgau Valley; designed following the exceptional meteorological events that occurred at the end of October 2018, the work was built with locally found, screened and reinforced material (reinforced soil). The tome, approx. 220m long, reaches a maximum height (valley face) of approximately 22m. Upstream, the facing has a maximum height of approx. 10m. The structure has a defence purpose against both landslide events and debris flows. For this reason, in the most depressed central portion, a soft-chord spillway in cemented cyclopean boulders was built in line with the Rio Sorgenti di Ciardes. In order not to interrupt the hydraulic continuity of the brook, a pipe protected by a steel comb structure was inserted at the base of the tome. Given the strategic position of the structure, monitoring systems (geophones, bar and wire strain gauges) were installed during the works to alert and protect the workers from possible instability events.
