Working on defense walls

Work on the defenses at Svartsengi is in full swing at the moment, and is being done day and night. A journalist and a photographer from mbl.is checked the work site yesterday, just before the evacuation took place.

Work has started on the east side of Mt. Þorbjörn where a journalist was traveling, but materials have been placed at the site and heavy machines have begun pushing up matter for the defense wall.

Ari Gudmundsson, an engineer in the area told mbl.is this yesterday:

“It depends whether we take it gradually or not, but this work can take a few weeks,” he said. “It would take a long time to build the dikes.

High alert in the area

The area was undergoing a great preparation, but a journalist and a photographer had to wait about three hours before being allowed to enter the area around the Svartsengi power plant and the Blue Lagoon under police escort. During the wait, however, a large number of heavy machinery were seen moving material.

In addition to the preparations for the defense walls, roads were also cleared to store the vehicles.

In the above-mentioned photo you can see where materials and tools were stored, but east of Mt. Þorbjörn you can see an excavator that Ari Gudmundsson, an engineer in the area, confirmed to mbl.is that had begun to install a dike east of the power plant and the Blue Lagoon.

A bulldozer could also be seen driving up the mound, over untouched ground, toward an escavator that was working there.

Called for an immediate evacuation

There was no opportunity to interview in the area nor to look at the work on the west side of Mt. Þorbjörn, because a sudden full-scale evacuation was called to the area due to the detection of sulfur gas.