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Blasting Works, Public and Specialized Works
Basque country


The blast was perfectly mastered, which made it possible
to reopen the road to one-way traffic for a few days.

The Big BOOM

Yesterday at noon explosives technicians used dynamite to blast a 3000m3 rock section in order to secure the road from Baïgorri to Banca

An 880 kg – explosive charge.

Yesterday, at 12.08 precisely MTPS, a company from Castres which specializes in mining works and specialized public works, blasted the 3000 m3 of rocks. "A clean blast, one of the best we've ever made. It is a complete success," site foreman Philippe Carayol claimed, seeming very relieved. "Works like this one are few and far between. We must both maximize safety for road users and reach our goal." His men had spent a week placing no less than 880 kg of explosives along the mountainside. Everything happened according to plan, down to the smallest details. The blast is estimated to have cost 220 000 euros.

There was great uncertainty as to the quantity of rocks that had been blown to pieces by the blast; this would determine the amount of work to be carried out before the road could open to traffic again. It was a kind surprise to Durruty from Calbo, the company in charge of stabilizing the site and clearing out rubble: the blast had been so carefully mastered that only the smallest quantity of rubble spilled onto the road. Company technicians moved into action as soon as the blast was completed, and they estimated that traffic would return to normal by this morning. The charming Vallée des Aldudes with be restored to its former appearance in the coming months. By then the great boom will only be a (good) memory.

Nicolas Bridoux

For over two years the RD 948 which winds its way from Saint-Etienne de Baïgorry to the Aldudes had been missing a lane around the place known as Etxeleku, half-way between Baïgorri and Banca. On December 31, 2004, at noon precisely, a whole hillside collapsed onto the road below. "It is a phenomenon known as mille-feuille ('thousand-layer cake') that triggered the landslide," Philippe Goyetsche, head of a local office at the Direction Départmentale de l'Equipement (DDE: regional road maintenance services)who took part in the rehabilitation works, explains. "Earth infiltrates the space between rock layers. The water already present there eventually exercises pressure on the earth and therefore on the rocks." The possibility of closing down indefinitely this vital access way to the valley is being seriously considered by a research agency commissioned by the Conseil Général. But this will not come to pass even if a thousand vehicles (some of them trucks and school buses) keep using this very road under the constant threat of rocks overlooking the road in precarious equilibrium.

 

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