Miguel Santamarta worked hard this Monday morning to clean every corner of his restaurant in order to reopen today as if nothing had happened here. The neighbors and merchants of numbers 56 and 58 on Sant Gervasi Cassoles street, evacuated a couple of weeks ago due to the appearance of a sinkhole more than eight meters in diameter and four meters deep caused by the extension works of metro line L9, were able to return to their activities this Monday. Sant Gervasi is a very popular eatery in the Sant Gervasi-la Bonanova neighborhood. These properties include eleven homes and four businesses. The number of apartments evacuated due to this incident was 93. In total, about ten businesses saw their activity interrupted.
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“The truth is that the first few days I was very overwhelmed – detailed this now relieved restaurateur – because no one clearly told us when we could reopen, nor what would happen with our financial losses. Also, we didn’t know if everything was going to get worse, if things would get even more complicated. But then they opened a line of aid for businesses affected by the darn sinkhole and everything became clearer, and I gradually started to calm down. In the end, it has been a kind of forced vacation. I think things are being resolved well, at least so far.”
And it is most likely that the tenants of number 54 on the same street will be able to return to their properties next week. What happened is that at the time some of the neighbors of this building did not authorize the Generalitat to install the corresponding sensors that monitor this type of underground work, so the Generalitat technicians are taking a few more days to carry out the mandatory measurements and verify that the stability of this building is not compromised. This requires positive readings to occur over several consecutive days. The authorities do not want more problems. They want to be sure of everything at 150%, at least… Apparently, these days in the neighborhood, this unexpected delay is stirring some resentment among the neighbors of this building.
“These have been very stressful days – some neighbors said on their way to their homes –. Staying in hotels does not mean we were on vacation. Now we just want to check that everything is fine at home.” Those who are waiting these days in their second homes on the coast also do not feel like they are on vacation. “Fortunately, the electricity supply worked at all times – continued the person in charge of Sant Gervasi – so, well, many things stored in containers spoiled, but nothing started to stink.” Meanwhile, quite a few neighbors in the neighborhood were asking one after another if the restaurant was open again. “No… tomorrow we will open!”
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The return to normality of the tenants of the other five affected buildings located on Rubinstein and Teodora Lamadrid streets is somewhat uncertain. The neighbors and merchants of the buildings closest to the darn sinkhole that suddenly swallowed the bathroom of the Verona pizzeria may take another month to recover their daily lives. At least that was implied last week by the Generalitat technicians. Domingo Finez, the person in charge of this pizzeria, still does not know when he will be able to reopen, but every day he is more hopeful.
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