Consolidation of embankments in the final stretch of the Era River

Pontedera, LI | ITALY

Final design, safety coordination, geognostic investigations and war risk assessment.

The Regional government of Tuscany commissioned HYDEA to consolidate the embankments in the final stretch of the Era river in Pontedera, Livorno.

The detailed studies carried out in past years by the Valdarno Inferiore Civil Engineering Department showed that the interventions carried out in the past to reduce the hydraulic risk induced by the Era river – in the stretch where it flows through the town of Pontedera – were not very effective.

Therefore, in the project scenario, the expansion reservoirs upstream of Pontedera would not be sufficient in terms of reducing the flow rate at the ridge. Such an ineffectiveness is due to the impossibility of obtaining a significant increase in the volume that can be invaded upstream, compared to the current state.

The consolidation of the existing embankments will increase the resistance to overtopping and siphoning in the event of rainfall events with a return time of two hundred years. The design activities of the embankment consolidation works also include geognostic investigations, laboratory tests for the definition of geotechnical parameters and the evaluation of the risk of war.

Implementation period
2022 – ongoing

Client
Government Commissioner against hydrogeological instability

In collaboration with geologists from the Ingeo studio.