Four months after the flood that destroyed the walkway that leads to Devil’s throatin the Iguazú Falls, province of Misiones, the Iguazú Argentina company announced that reconstruction work began after an agreement with the Ministry of Tourism, Sports and Environment of the Nation.
The firm said that the tasks will be carried out by about 80 workers, but They could not specify the time it will take the recovery of the sections that remained on the river bed and the replacement of those that were lost when they were dragged by the current downstream.
What happened to access to the Devil’s Throat
At the end of last October, intense rainfall in the upper basins of the Iguazú River, in Brazilled to the opening of floodgates in several hydroelectric plants.
In a few hours, the flow multiplied by 17 times and reached 24,200 cubic meters per second, a situation that led National Parks to close the tours some days for safety reasons.
As is usual in the face of the extraordinary increase in the flow of the Iguazú, the Iguazú Argentina operators began a preventive process that seeks to avoid structural damage to the piles that support the 1,100 meter walkway which leads to a balcony that allows you to enjoy the largest of the 275 waterfalls: Devil’s Throat.
As soon as the information arrived from Brazil about a large flood, the workers removed the anchor bolts and removed the railings, in such a way that the force of the water or the impact of a tree that was dragged by the current, detached them and deposited them in the river bed.
Finally the river rose more than expected and the damage was also greater. Although the structural survey of the concrete piles still remains, it is known that 76 of the 99 sections of the walkway fell off.
In addition, the company must replace numerous sections that cut the steel cable anchors and it is believed that they fell off the falls and ended up in the Iguazú canyon.
“The tasks will begin in the sector closest to the Garganta Station and will progress towards the balcony. He has to go recovering the material that is in the water and seeing what state it was in. The intention is to reach the balcony as soon as possible, where the damage was greatest, as we were able to observe with a drone,” explained Carol Da Rosa, manager of Iguazú Argentina.
It is not the only job that the firm will have to face. The force of the water also destroyed 400 meters from the ecological train tracks that takes tourists to the beginning of the walkway to Garganta.
“We have to repair the access road to Garganta Station and the tracks. The entire toilet sector must also be rebuilt because at the time it was covered by water,” explained Da Rosa.
Delays in reconstruction works
Regarding the delays in the start of the work, the manager said that “we completed a first survey in December, but the replacement of authorities in Parks and other agencies complicated us. This is a National Park and we must have approvals to be able to undertake repairs. To this we must add that for a long time supplies were not available due to the devaluation that occurred,” explained Da Rosa.
The president of the Iguazú Argentina company, Roberto Enríquez, met with the Secretary of Tourism, Environment and Sports, Daniel Scioli; and there it was agreed to immediately begin work to recover the walk. The Secretary of Administrative Management of the Ministry of the Interior, Alberto Haure, was also present.
When will access to the Devil’s Throat be ready?
“We have to make an evaluation of the walkways and the state in which they were left and from there make a diagnosis to know when they will be re-enabled,” said Enríquez when asked about the time that the reconstruction will take.
“In a couple of weeks we will have a better outlook, but our objective, being optimistic, is finish by July holidays or before spring,” he added.
As the rescue tasks of the footbridges displaced from the bases are carried out in the water, the flow of the Iguazú River has to be kept below 4,000 cubic meters so that the operators can work safely.
The walkway that leads to Garganta del Diablo had already suffered damage in October 2022. On that occasion the flow reached 16,500 cubic meters per second and caused the detachment of 55 sections. The ride was rehabilitated in four months.