Since then there has been further consolidation and construction right through the winter and the work is now at an advanced stage. Workers could be seen this week planting trees and shrubs on the new slopes leading down to the stage area and pond and putting the finishing touches to lights and other outside furniture.

From the road above it is now much clearer just what is being constructed in this area. A series of lit walkways and paths with wooden handrails winding down into the park and an area close to the bottom that will be a kind of amphitheatre with stepped seating.

It looks as though by the summer  Barga will have a new space ready for outside theatre, concerts and other events in the open.

[View with PicLens]

What is also becoming clearer is that they are building a closed water system which will feed a fountain at the top of the park from which water will then run through a series of open channels to the bottom where it will be pumped back up to the top to start its journey once again.

[View with PicLens]

Sounds like a nice idea but lets hope that the recent fad in other cities of dumping soap powder or washing up liquid into fountains to create huge foam masses to celebrate new years eve and football victories doesn’t come to Barga otherwise Parco Buozzi with become a huge foamy slippery mess.

Dec 2006 – first press conference
October 2007- work starts
November 2007 – second press conference
March 2008 – first project completed
November 2009 – update of progrress

From the road above it is now much clearer just what is being constructed in this area.  A series of lit walkways and paths with wooden handrails winding down into the park  and an area close to the bottom that will be a kind of amphitheatre with stepped seating. It looks as though by next year,  Barga will have a new space ready for outside theatre, concerts and other events in the open.

What is also becoming clearer is that they are building a closed water system which will feed a fountain at the top of the park from which water will then run through a series of open channels to the bottom where it will be pumped back up to the top to start its journey once again.

[View with PicLens]

Sounds like a nice idea but lets hope that the recent fad in other cities of dumping soap powder into fountains to create huge foam masses to celebrate new years eve and football victories doesn’t come to Barga otherwise Parco Buozzi with become the a huge foamy slippery mess.

Dec 2006 – first press conference
October 2007- work starts
November 2007 – second press conference
March 2008 – first project completed

This project, costing over Euro 13 million,  which was started under the Sereni era and has continued with the present Bonini administration, will on its completion present us with a Barga which will never be the quite the same again.

After the tragic events in Messina, Sicily this week, where 22 people were killed, 40 people are still missing and more than 500 people have been left homeless after torrential rain caused landslides with houses flattened and roads washed away by a torrent of rain and mud, the Italian media has started to put a spotlight on what could have been done to avoid this and other natural (and man made) disasters.

[View with PicLens]

This morning journalists from the Terra! weekly program on TG5  Mediaset were in Barga to find out first-hand just what it was that was being done right in this area to avoid and hopefully resolve some of these problems.

They flew over the Rio Fontanamaggio in a helicopter filming the work in progress by the Terra Uomini Ambiente co-operative who are shoring up one side the ravine and reinforcing the road that snakes around Barga Vecchia. They also took a short flight out to Sommocolonia for a view of the work shoring up some of the houses which risked sliding down into the valley during torrential rains in January of this year.

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Their next port of call was the school in Fornaci di Barga which has had extensive work recently to bring it up to earthquake standards including the complete demolition and rebuilding of the gymnasium.

During the day Marco Corrias interviewed the Mayor of Barga Marco Bonini, the Assessore alla Protezione Civile Pietro Onesti, the regional President of the Lega Ambiente, Pietro Baronti, the geologist Carlo Chines and the engineer Marco Ceccarelli.

The subsequent footage and interviews should be aired on TG5 thursday evening.

Click on the link below to hear the interview of Marco Corrias from the Terra! program on TG5 and the Mayor of Barga Marco Bonini recorded this morning (in Italiano)

marco_bonini_terra_interview_6oct2009

Dec 2006 – first press conference| October 2007 – work starts |  November 2007 – second press conference |  March 2008 – first project completed |  May 2008 – third press conference