Central Switzerland, 09.06.2020

Axenstrasse closed again by a landslide

The Axenstrasse between Flüelen and Sisikon has been closed again after another rock fall and landslide on Monday evening. According to initial reports, no-one was injured.

A landslide and rock fall occurred at around 10 p.m. on Monday In the Gumpisch area above the A4-Axenstrasse, confirmed a spokesman for the Cantonal Police Uri at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency. The road has been closed until further notice, with traffic diverted via the A2 motorway. He was unable to give any information on the extent of the rock fall or of any possible damage, and experts from the Federal Roads Office (Astra) were on site.

The Axenstrasse is closed after a rockfall.

It was an event similar to those that have happened in the past in this area. An alarm system has been installed on the affected section of the road from autumn 2019, which automatically blocks the road as soon as it detects a movement on the mountain.

Several hundred cubic metres of material fell onto the Axenstrasse at the beginning of May this year. On that occasion, the warning infrastructure was also damaged, and the road remained closed for several hours.

The Axenstrasse is part of the A4, and connects Brunnen with Flüelen on the right bank of Lake Lucerne. It runs through the Gumpisch rockfall area between Flüelen and Sisikon, and there have been repeated mudslides into the Gumpischtal valley in the past.