Just one day before the second lockdown in Italy, I visited (with my little group of friends) the shocking ruins of the Gleno dam, located in the Valle di Scalve (Bergamo, Italy). The dam is sorrounded by the wonderful background of the Mountain Gleno (2882 metres). The walk from Pianezza village to the Gleno Dam is easy and takes about an hour.
The Gleno Dam was a multiple arch buttress dam on the Gleno Creek in the Valle di Scalve, northern Province of Bergamo, Italy. The dam was built between 1916 and 1923 with the purpose of producing hydroelectric power. The project has been planned and financed by private entrepreneurs, the Viganò family. At 6:30 am on first december 1923, a buttress on the dam cracked and subsequently failed.
Within minutes an estimated 4,500,000 m3 of water gushed from the reservoir at an elevation of 1,535 metres to the valley below. The village of Bueggio was flooded first, followed by a partial flooding of Dezzo, part of the municipality of Azzone, and complete flooding of Dezzo, a frazione of Colere and Corna di Darfo. The flood waters stopped when they reached Lake Iseo.
“The collapse was already been indicated, because of the lack of professionalism, the speed and the carelessness during the costruction: the news said about a not well-washing of sand, scaffoldings forgotten in the cement and leaks of the water. Moreover, that sad day the rolling shutters hadn't been opened: water hot over the limits.”
SOURCES: (http://www.scalve.it/gleno/english.htm)
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleno_Dam)
