Glorious park works to begin in January

The embarrancadas works of the square of Glories of Barcelona will resume in January. In surface, on the mountain side will start the works of what will be the future park, between the streets of Cartagena and Independència, announced yesterday the City council. On the other hand, the Urban Planning Commission approved yesterday the new project of the tunnel to overcrow Gran Via: stops since April, works will be resumed at the beginning of 2018. And as already announced by the Government of the mayor Colau, they will continue until the Rambla del Poblenou.

The creator of the squared grid of the Eixample that connects Ciutat Vella with the old towns of the plade Barcelona, ​​Ildefons Cerdà, imagined the Plaza de les Glòries as a great center of the city, where three great avenues are crossed: Gran Via, Meridiana and Diagonal . But the space, enormous, has never finished working as a park, but as a road junction through which every day pass 90,000 cars.


After decades of neighborhood struggle to convert the area into a large park and equipment pole, the works began in 2013: aim, to bury the Gran Via to be able to surface. The elevated road ring - the drum, as it was popularly known - was demolished, the Encants were moved and the provisional urbanization of the space was carried out, leaving in the middle the almond from where the tunnel had to be built and the traffic being diverted.

The works of the tunnel, almost a kilometer, started skirting the end of the mandate of former mayor Xavier Trias in April 2015. But Trias decided to make the tunnel in two phases: from the street from Castillejos to Badajoz; and in the future, from Badajoz to the Rambla del Poblenou. The schedule foreseen to finish the first phase last spring. But the problems soon arrived and in October of last year this newspaper revealed that they accumulated 18 months of delay due to technical difficulties: insufficient tastings, unexpected underground elements and the bad condition of the railway tunnels forced to recalculate all the work, awarded with a decrease of 24%. Some works, moreover, are under suspicion in the 3% Corruption Case.

After months of uncertainty, in April of this year the government of the mayor Ada Colau cut by the sound and paralyzed the works of the tunnel. "To do cleaning," defended the government, which took the decision ignoring most of the plenary and provoking a political storm. Among other issues, because the opposition demands to know how much the delay will cost: the government assures that the extra cost will be 20% while the experts maintain that it will reach 60%.

Before the summer, the story took a turn in the script and the government of Colau announced that when the works are resumed it will be to make the whole tunnel: from Castillejos to the promenade of Poblenou. Total cost with VAT, 176 million euros, counting those already invested. And calendar, opening in 2021.

With the definitive approval of the project after a month of public exposure, works should start at the beginning of 2018. The new project plans to drill further, improve the tunnel under which there are train and subway, more diversions of facilities and changes in the shoring system. The executive of Colau, in addition, will cut the works in several batches to avoid losses and that a single company controls the works.

Canopia starts

Parallel to the procedures for awarding the tunnel works, the Government approved last week the project to begin the works of the first phase of the park, Canòpia. Urbanization of the space between the streets of Cartagena and Independència by the sides will begin; and between Consell de Cent and the provisional route of the Gran Via. In total, 45,860 square meters with an investment of almost 20 million euros and a year of execution.

In the area is planned La Clariana, a large esplanade; the Rambla dels Encants, which will be a new walk, and spaces of green areas, for young people, children and dogs.