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By Bruce Johnston in Rome, Electronic Telegraph
An
ambitious project has begun to raise the level of the area around
St Mark's Square in Venice by up to 10in to protect it from ever
more frequent flooding.
The
piazza, the city's old legal and administrative hub, which Napoleon
called the "drawing room of Europe", is Venice's lowest
and most flood-prone point. The area, thought to have lost 10in
to the sea in the past century, is inundated five times more often
than the rest of the city and the sight of people having to cross
it on duckboards has become commonplace.
Flooding also
plays havoc with parts of the 12th century floor of St Mark's
Basilica. On a level four inches lower than the lagoon basin where
gondolas are kept, it flooded 250 times last year. The St Mark's
project, which is expected to cost £30 million and will
take five years to complete, began this week.
The first
stage will be to heighten a 150-yard stretch of lagoon front by
eight inches. Work will then begin in a few months to protect
the richly decorated floor of the basilica. Each piece of mosaic
will be removed until the work is completed and will then be replaced.
A further
stage will be to remove paving stones from the piazza to lay a
thick, waterproof clay and ash membrane underneath them. But Anna
Ranghieri, of the Venezia Nuova consortium appointed by the city
council, which controls all work in the city centre, said that
while the work would greatly reduce flooding it would succeed
only as part of a wider plan to safeguard Venice.
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