One more section of the open air parking in Tavros, next to the urban train ISAP station, collapsed on Saturday morning. The collapsed section was right next to the big gaping hole that swallowed three parked vehicles on Friday afternoon.
Video on Saturday morning
According to local media kallitheaonline.gr, the soil under the asphalt layer is eroded by the waters of the last rainfalls. The riverbed of Ilisos river has been reportedly also flooded due to the recent rainfalls.
It is unclear how deep the soil erosion has progressed.
A technical team from the Greek Institute of Geological Studies has reported visited the site.
With special equipment, the team is expected to walk from the area where Ilisos river is not channeled underground until the parking place, conduct controls checks and determine the reasons for the collapse.
The free parking space does not belong to Kallithea Municipality but to the state organization “Public Properties” from which the cars’ owners should seek compensation for the damages.
Municipality teams removed not only the three cars but also other vehicles parked in the collapsing parking space.
It was short after 6 o’ clock Friday afternoon, when suddenly a gaping hole emerged and swallowed three cars parked next to each other.
Hundreds of motorists use the free parking on a daily basis, it was a “miracle” that no people were harmed.
Τhe covering of Ilissos River started towards the end of 1930’s and the projects were resumed at the end of the 1950’s. with funding form the Marshall Plan.
Originally the river whose source are the western slopes of Hymettus Mountain in East Athens was flowing into the larger river of Kifissos in west Athens.
During antiquity, it ran outside the defensive walls of Athens.
A topographical map of ancient Athens, linked to Piraeus via the Long Walls. The city’s three rivers, Kifissos (left), Eridanus (middle), and Ilissos (right) are shown in blue. source
Kilometer-long of river bed went underground with human intervention, Ilisos flows under main avenues of East Athens like Mesogeion, Kalirois and Thiseos Avenues, in front of the Panathinaikon Stadium.
During the covering projects, Ilisos River turned and a new bed was created under Panagi Tsaldari Avenue at the boundaries between the Municipality of Moschato and Kallithea.
Ilisos Riverbed by Moschato.
The new route ( – – – – line on the sketch) took the river waters straight to the sea. coming to surface and running into the Saronic Gulf in the middle of Faliron Bay.
Picture 1963: Ilisos river flowing along the Kallirois Avenue, behind the Fix building.
Ilisos Reiver – Kallirois Fountain on 7 March 1891. US cyclist William Sachtleben, picture shot by US photographer Thomas Gaskell Allen Jr.
Ilisos waterfalls 1801-1806 by painter Edward Dodwell; printed in London in 1821
More amazing pictures and paintings of Athens rivers here, although texts and captions in Greek.
