During the night of 14 May 300,000 m3 of rock broke off the Valegion mountain and crashed down 1,000 m to the valley floor in the Swiss canton of Ticino, near the village of Preonzo. Thanks in part to Leica Geosystems’ Deformation Monitoring solution GeoMoS local authorities were able to evacuate the valley’s industrial zone and to close the A2 highway and several cantonal roads at an early stage.
The Ticino community Preonzo between Biasca and Bellinzona in the canton Ticino/Switzerland has lived with rock falls for several years. Ten years ago, a huge rock mass slid into the valley. The Cantonal Forestry Office has been watching the danger zone since 1998, and has been relying on automatic monitoring systems from Leica Geosystems AG for the past two years. Cantonal geologist Giorgio Valenti says: "We have regularly experienced small movements over the years, especially in spring time. Since the end of April of this year, the movements measured have increased to several millimeters per hour, which made the safety measures necessary."