Lago di Palagnedra

The Lake is an artificial reservoir Palagnedra in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.

Location

The lake is located in Cento Valli between the towns Palagnedra and Camedo and dammed the river Melezza. The catchment area is 137.7 square kilometers, the volume of 4:26 million m³. The dam has a height of 72 meters, it was completed in 1952.

Use

The reservoir serves the Maggia power stations AG as balancing reservoir for its water power plant at Brissago. In it, the water is collected, which was used in higher plant stations already for power generation.

Special

During extreme flood in August 1978, a critical situation, as heavy rains brought in 2,000 cubic meters of water per second into the lake was created. The designed only for a maximum of 800 cubic meters per second spillway between the wall and the crown over it leading road to Palagnedra was clogged with driftwood. There was lateral erosion. Prior to the occurrence of a fracture risk, the flood subsided. In the following years a separate bridge over the valley was for the road built and dismantled the existing road over the dam. The dam can since then are flooded at high tide over the whole width.

The lake is divided below the settlement Borgnone by a second dam.