Storm-damaged road reopens in Saas Valley in southern Switzerland

Storms and heavy rain triggered a landslide last week that closed the main cantonal road into the Saas Valley to the resort of Saas-Fee in southern Switzerland. Keystone-SDA

The Saas Valley in canton Valais is once again fully accessible. The main road into the valley had been closed for six days due to a landslide caused by storms and heavy rain.

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The road to the mountain resort of Saas Fee was reopened at around 10am on Wednesday, Stefan Luggen from the Valais Mobility Office told the Keystone-SDA news agency.

Representatives from Saas Valley Tourism visited the site of the landslide on Wednesday to thank the workers and “all those who actively worked to clear the road”, the organisation said in a press statement.

+ Saas Valley in southern Switzerland remains isolated after landslide

The road between Eisten and Saas-Balen was interrupted after a landslide on September 5. Around 2,200 people, mainly Swiss tourists, were stranded in the valley after the storms.

Several thousand tonnes of rock had crashed down the mountain, the cantonal engineer in charge, Vincent Pellissier, explained on Monday. Before the workers could start building a temporary road, explosives had to be used to clear huge rocks that had tumbled down the mountain. The largest rocks had a volume of 100 cubic metres, or weighed around 270 tonnes.

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The road reopening on Wednesday is still temporary, however. The canton is still seeking a definitive solution for the bridge over the Mattwaldbach stream, said Luggen. According to Pellissier, it should be completed in ten months at the latest and run a little further away from the rock face in order to avoid a similar situation in the future.

Helicopters were used to evacuate some people from the valley. Since Friday, 1,200-1,300 people were able to leave the valley by helicopter, according to Simon Bumann, spokesperson for the regional command staff. In addition, material and food could be delivered to the cut-off villages.

Adapted from French by DeepL/sb

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