The return of all the neighbours from the L9 sinkhole will still take weeks

BarcelonaThe return home of the neighbors of the Sant Gervasi - la Bonanova neighborhood affected by the sinkhole from the L9 works will begin gradually on Monday, but will still last a few weeks. This Friday was the scheduled date for the first residents to be able to return to their apartments after ten days. In statements to journalists, the director general of Infrastructures of the Generalitat, Ramon Ramírez, explained that the inhabitants of two blocks on Sant Gervasi de Cassoles street – numbers 56 and 58 – will be able to start returning home on Monday, and that for the remaining six blocks, it is expected that they will be able to do so during the "coming weeks".

According to Ramírez, the soundings and checks carried out this week have led to the conclusion that these two buildings on Sant Gervasi de Cassoles street are now perfectly stabilized for residents to begin their return home. He specified that during this weekend all corresponding certificates will be signed so that those residents who wish can return to their homes.

The director general of Infrastructures pointed out that there is a third adjacent affected block – Sant Gervasi de Cassoles 54 – in addition to the two that can already return, which could also meet the requirements for residents to return. However, he pointed out that since no sensors were installed from the beginning, they want to wait another week to confirm that everything is in order. It remains to be seen if the residents of Sant Gervasi de Cassoles 52 and Rubinstein 6 will also be included in this second batch.

The outlook is bleaker for residents of the remaining blocks on Rubinstein and Teodora Lamadrid streets, the closest to the point where the sinkhole occurred. In this case, at the meeting they held with teams from the Generalitat and the Barcelona City Council, they were informed that their return home could still take a few weeks. "I don't think I'll be back until the end of August," explained Adriana, who lives at Rubinstein 4 and will have to celebrate her 70th birthday away from home in a few days, resignedly. Domingo Fínez, owner of the pizzeria Verona where the sinkhole occurred, also doubts that he will be able to reopen this summer.

Ramírez has admitted that the situation of the blocks closest to the sinkhole still requires a prudent time for analysis. "We are talking about weeks, not months," he stressed. As he explained, concrete is still being injected into the ground to fully stabilize the subsoil between the tunnel – at a depth of 40 meters – and the four-meter cavity that opened ten days ago. In this way, any ground movement that may have occurred in the subsoil and has not been detected is to be corrected. On the bright side, however, he explained that at this point it can be ruled out that there is any structural damage to any of the eight blocks evacuated ten days ago.

Regarding the causes of the sinkhole, Ramírez admitted that, as the experts told ARA, over-excavation is the most likely hypothesis, but he pointed out that there are others and that no cause can yet be confirmed. "We will not speculate," warned the general director, who said that the conclusions and quantifications will be made public in the coming weeks.

Aid for traders and residents

The Government delegate in Barcelona, Pilar Díaz, also explained that the Catalan executive will approve an emergency credit line at its meeting next Tuesday so that merchants affected by the sinkhole can meet their expenses. She detailed that those affected will be divided between merchants and residents, and that in the case of the latter, a compensation fund will be created so that they can meet the extraordinary expenses that have resulted from not being able to be at home for several days. For the time being, about seventy residents continue to be housed in hotels in the area.