NERVIÓN-IBAIZABAL RIVER CHANNELING. PHASE 3. SECTION: BENGOETXE-PLAZAKOETXE

Area of activity
WATER AND ENVIRONMENT

Service
River hydraulics and flooding

Client
URA – Basque Water Agency

Scope

• Detailed design project development

Duration
2018

The Ibaizabal riverbed as it passes through Galdakao has sections with insufficient drainage capacity. This, together with the fact that the Mercadillo bridge acts as an important hydraulic obstacle, accentuates flooding in the area even for floods corresponding to return periods of well under 100 years. These floods represent a great risk for people, affect communication routes and service infrastructures, and cause important economic losses to the extensive industrial establishment in the area.

All this is detrimental to the socioeconomic growth of the region and the full use of the land bordering the rivers, so it is essential to carry out a channeling work in order to prevent these floods.

This channeling project is intended to improve the hydraulic function and drainage capacity of the Ibaizabal River in order to prevent damage caused by flooding. This indirectly benefits the implementation of important infrastructures to be executed by other Administrations. This will also allow the recovery of important extensions of land, currently floodable, which are vital for the urban development of the whole area. In addition, the environmental conditions of the riverbeds, which are currently very degraded, will be recovered.

The improvement of the hydraulic capacity of the Ibaizabal River is mainly carried out by dredging and widening and the creation of a low water channel. All this in a section between the Bengoetxe weir and downstream of the Torrezabal bridge.

Likewise, the piles of the Plazakoetxe bridge will be strengthened and the factory in ruins next to the Outocompu building in Zarátamo, a pavilion in the industrial estate of the same name and the Santa Bárbara pelota court in Galdakao will be demolished. Also, to be demolished are houses Nos. 62 and 64 in Txomin Egileor Kalea in Galdakao, house No. 2 in the Arkotxa neighborhood in Zaratamo, the Bengoetxe weir and the water intake for the Formica factory.

However, all these projected measures do not manage to completely eliminate the danger of flooding in the area for floods and must therefore be accompanied by the enlargement and restoration of the Mercadillo bridge in Galdakao whose drainage capacity is insufficient.