The residents of the L9 sinkhole begin a gradual return home that will last for weeks

BarcelonaThe return home of the residents of the Sant Gervasi - la Bonanova neighborhood affected by the sinkhole from the L9 works will begin on Monday, gradually but will still take a few weeks. This Friday was the appointed date for the first residents to be able to return to their apartments after ten days. In statements to journalists, the director general of Infrastructure of the Generalitat, Ramon Ramírez, explained that the inhabitants of two blocks on Sant Gervasi de Cassoles street —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 monitoring 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 the corresponding certificates will be signed so that those residents who wish can return to their homes.

The director general of Infrastructure 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 there. 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. In this second phase, it remains to be seen if the residents of Sant Gervasi de Cassoles 52 and Rubinstein 6 will also be included.

The outlook is darker for the 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 had with teams from the Generalitat and the Barcelona City Council, they were informed that their return home may still take a few weeks. "I don't think I'll be back until the end of August," explained Adriana resignedly, who lives at Rubinstein 4 and will have to celebrate her 70th birthday away from home in a few days. Domingo Fínez, owner of the pizzeria Verona where the sinkhole occurred, also doubts 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 period of analysis. As he explained, concrete is still being injected into the ground to further 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 in the subsoil that has occurred and has not been detected is to be corrected. On the bright side, however, he explained that at this time it can be ruled out that there is any structural damage to any of the eight blocks evacuated ten days ago.

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 cover 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 they can cover the extraordinary expenses incurred by not being able to be at home for several days. For now, about seventy residents continue to be housed in hotels in the area.