The Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration (Vegagerðin) is examining whether flood-defence embankments by Jökulsá in Lón need to be raised at the site where the Ring Road broke apart last week. The general repair has been completed, but the road still needs to be resurfaced with asphalt.
General repairs to the Ring Road by Jökulsá í Lóni have been completed. The road split over a 150-metre stretch during heavy flooding on Friday, not far from the bridge over the river.
The road was closed on Friday, and repair work was carried out on Saturday. It was reopened to traffic on Saturday afternoon.
All available contractors called in
Loftur Þór Jónsson, Vegagerðin’s East Region manager, says the weekend repair work went smoothly. Crews worked continuously all day Saturday so the road could be reopened.
“It went very well—basically, every contractor in the area who had people and equipment was called in.”
He says asphalt paving will take place in the coming days. It is also being considered whether to raise the flood-defence embankments by the bridge upstream of the road. The bridge deck is at 26 metres above the riverbed, and one option is to raise the embankments to 25.9 metres.
“The idea is that they would be overtopped first—so they’re not so high that the bridge starts taking the flow. That’s what we’re concerned about.”
Source: Ruv.is
