Kallirois: The “crash of the century” since 1992 caused subsidence on the road surface

The “rife of the century” 32 years ago for the burglary of the Labor Bank at 19 Kalliirois Street was what caused the great subsidence of the road surface yesterday afternoon, causing severe traffic problems.

The earth literally opened up in the middle lane of traffic in the stream towards Kallimarmaro causing a large hole especially dangerous for passing vehicles.

The workshops of the Region

From the first moment, crews from the Region of Attica and EYDAP rushed to the spot in order to determine the causes of the subsidence and they were surprised to find that the hole that was created was due to the infamous reef that had taken place at this point in 1992.

The Region’s crews were, from the first moment, on the scene and worked throughout the night, in order to close the hole and re-pave the asphalt early in the morning.

The riff of the century

It is recalled that in the distant December 1992, on the eve of Christmas, the employees of the Labor Bank working at the branch on Kallirois Street 19 (today Eurobank operates there), discovered that unknown persons had breached the armored vault where the financial institution’s customer boxes were located.

Of the 1,151 counters, 301 had been opened with their valuable contents stolen. According to calculations, the value of the stolen goods reached 5 billion drachmas.

In order to reach the basement with the doors, the perpetrators had opened a tunnel starting from the bed of the Ilisos river, which passes under Kallirois street. The burrow was about 25 meters long and it was masterfully constructed since in this underground route even rails were placed on which a wagon moved that took out the rubble of the digging, without anyone realizing what was happening.

Yes, the digging is speculated to have taken even months. It is worth mentioning the fact that when the perpetrators entered the bank, sometime during the weekend of December 19-20, 1992, the alarm went off but the security officials did not see anything suspicious or any movement on the ground floor of the bank, so they did not pay attention. The case remains unsolved to this day.

Paradoxical as it may sound, it was this famous riff-raff of 1992 that… is responsible for the subsidence at this particular point of Kalliroi, as according to the competent services of the Region, for so many years no intervention at all had been made to strengthen the road surface, with result 31 years later, the earth is torn in… two.