- Residents in the Yofyros and Xiropotamos districts of Heraklion are living in fear after utility work on Iasiou Street—running parallel to the national highway—left excavations dug just half a meter from a sheer drop-off.
- The unstable roadway is used daily by massive freight trucks and heavy vehicles, raising fears that a single heavy rainstorm will trigger a catastrophic soil collapse.
- Locals report that contractors excavated the same trench multiple times for fiber-optic installations, leaving manholes and hazardous holes unsealed and open to traffic.
- Navigating this stretch requires extreme caution, as foreign tourists and local motorists alike face sudden road narrowing, unpaved hazards, and a lack of safety barriers near the drop.
Residents of Gიოfyro and Xiropotamos are raising the alarm over work on Iasiou Street, a road running parallel to the national highway in Heraklion, saying the excavation has left the road edge dangerously close to a drop.
According to residents, crews dug roughly half a meter from the embankment edge, raising concerns that heavy rain could soften the ground and cause part of it to give way.
That is particularly worrying because large vehicles, including trucks and other heavy vehicles, use the road every day. Residents fear that a collapse or sudden loss of road surface could turn an already awkward stretch into a serious traffic accident waiting to happen.
And this is one of those places where “just drive carefully” is not quite enough.
For people who live here, negotiating Cretan roads is practically an acquired skill. For someone in a rental car who has arrived from northern Europe expecting clearly marked lanes, generous shoulders and roads that behave themselves, surprises like this can be considerably less amusing.
It Is Not the First Problem
Residents say they had already complained about repeated work in the same area to install optical-fiber networks. According to their account, workers dug up sections of the road two or three times, and allegedly left some drains and holes open after the work was completed.
That creates an additional hazard for both cars and pedestrians, particularly at night or in poor weather.
The immediate concern now, however, is the stability of the road edge. With heavy vehicles passing daily and the possibility of substantial rainfall, residents want the situation addressed before the road itself contributes unexpectedly to Heraklion’s traffic problems.
This matters beyond the two neighborhoods. Iasiou Street is used by residents, commercial vehicles, and drivers moving around Heraklion, including visitors who may be completely unfamiliar with the road.
Cretan driving already has its own rhythm. Nobody needs the road shoulder joining the dance.
Source: Creta Live
