Articles

The “Paraporti Scaletta, Verocchio and San Luca” is a complex of hydraulic works developed to keep the canal clean by throwing back into the river the crushed stone deposited in the riverbed, which were causing a reduction of the carrying capacity of the canal. It is located shortly after the start of the Reno Canal, immediately downstream of the ancient Lock of Casalecchio. The first upstream, the Scaletta (also called “Casa dei Ghiacci”, namely Ice House) is equipped with a vertical adjustment valve capable of creating a strong water current within the canal, specifically meant to bring away the sediments carried by the water and deposited in the riverbed, thus guaranteeing the cleanliness and continuous carrying capacity of the networkstill ; the floodgate is also equipped with a surface spillway allowing workers to break up the sheets of ice that formed during the winter with metal-tipped poles, preventing them from "ruining" the wooden wheels of the Bolognese mills.