Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

MM's intervention to avoid flooding and safeguard the safety of users and the traffic of the Comasina district 

Milan, August 16 2021 – Work has been completed to strengthen the rainwater management, collection and arrangement system of the vehicle underpass on Viale Rubicone at the entrance to the municipal territory, in the Comasina district. The underpass had been subject to prolonged closures due to flooding during the strong storms and heavy torrential rains which also affected Milan due to the changed climatic conditions.

"The increasingly intense and sudden rainfall leads us to pay much more attention and invest more in drainage structures to make them adequate, safe and capable of responding to the changed meteorological context – declares Marco Granelli councilor for Mobility and Public Works –. With these works, the situation has certainly improved and it will be possible to avoid closing the underpass, safeguarding the safety of those who use it and without jeopardizing traffic in the neighbourhood. Upon completion of the works, MM's maintenance interventions also involved the Rubicone underpass -Stop under via Vincenzo da Seregno and the parallel underpass of via Astesani-Comasina".

The rainfall trend in recent years has changed significantly: rainfall often has a stormy, violent, sudden nature, with very heavy falls of water concentrated in short periods and this constitutes a great "stress test" for the drainage system.

The works by MM Servizi Idrici Integrati began in autumn with a first phase which made it possible to strengthen the hydraulic connection between the rainwater drainage system inside the underpass and the collection and pumping tank located 8 meters below the level of surface in the overlooking green area. The underpass, already after the first works, constantly guaranteed the continuity of the service. Subsequently, the water management systems were renewed (wells, siphons, cleaning of connectors and pipes).

Preliminary to the intervention were the works to strengthen and completely renovate the water collection tank and related electromechanical systems for pumping into the sewer.

We remind you that last April the Municipality of Milan entrusted MM Servizi idrici Integrati with the management of the entire water drainage system in Milan which also includes waste water, purification, the water network (ditches and canals), the collection and disposal of rainwater in the streets with also the 140 thousand road drains and the 29 road underpass lifting stations. Relying on MM allows for greater control of the entire system, more timely emergency intervention and greater efficiency and safety for citizens.

In fact, MM guarantees a real-time monitoring network through a remote control system with cameras and sensors, active 24 hours a day, which allows permanent monitoring of the systems to guarantee timely activation of the operational teams in the event of a fault as well as to support the municipal civil protection in case of adverse weather conditions.

The remote control system will be extended to all underpasses and allows remote and real-time monitoring of the electrical parameters of the pumps (current intensity, voltage, power, intervention of protections, blackouts, failed starts), the recording of level trends in the tank and relative percentage of useful volume in the tanks