SIC News Interview
Carlos Oliveira Cruz, full professor of Civil Engineering at Técnico, explains that structures such as the Mondego and A1 dikes withstood the efforts for which they were designed, but climate events exceeded these parameters.
As Critical infrastructures affected by the storms of recent days did not collapse due to construction defects, but because they were designed for less extreme scenarios than those that occur today. The professor of Civil Engineering at Técnico, Carlos Oliveira Cruz, advocates structural and selective intervention to increase the country’s resilience in the face of
They are divided into two distinct plans: local impacts on housing, equipment and streets and occurrences on critical infrastructures such as the A1 or the Mondego dikes.
“In the case of critical infrastructures, in reality, they are not failing. They are supporting what were the efforts for which they were designed. This happens because in the face of extreme weather events that are exceeding the parameters for which these infrastructures were designed”.
The most obvious example is the Mondego dikes. They were designed for a flow rate of up to 2000 cubic meters per second, but the values recorded exceeded this limit.
“The Mondego dikes, I repeat, were not designed to withstand the climatic events we have seen these days”.
Still, the professor emphasizes that the monitoring system worked. Before the explosion, the Portuguese Environment Agency identified the risk and it was possible to evacuate populations and cut roads. The same happened on the A1, where the preventive closure avoided more serious consequences.
“The fact that these alerts are appearing (…) shows that somehow we are able to monitor and anticipate these collapses.”
