The Rambla reform is still stuck and conditional on budgets

Completed the 2,000 days late In the long-awaited reform of the Rambla, the big question remains in the air: How many more will we have to wait while it continues to deteriorate? Nor the unanimous pressure of all the municipal opposition groups this Tuesday in the urban planning commission has been able to start from the government team of Colau a clear schedule for the start of works for the iconic axis, nor a specific reserve of funds. The deputy mayor Janet Sanz has left the ball on the court of ERC, to which he demands support to carry out the budgets, as a necessary previous step to be able to face some work that is planned last seven years. But reproaches are raining against this approach, taking into account that the council has programmed from March – and financially endowed – the millionaire and also delayed reform of the Via Laietana.

The electronic scoreboard installed by the Friends of the Rambla continues to add – with shame – a delay that is already difficult to justify. In the last commission in September, mandatory reports (from the Ministry of Defense) were alluded to pending the green light, with minor issues such as a reservation of parking spaces for the Naval Command, which would already be almost resolved. “In the coming weeks the reports will arrive by which it was necessary to suspend the processing of the definitive processing” of the executive project, Sanz told the press shortly before the meeting. But it has already advanced that to contemplate it and be able to fit it into the remainder of the mandate it will be necessary to Esquerra support on your accounts. The merchants themselves believe that it is a new “excuse” because for the Colau government “it has never been a priority issue,” says its president, Fermín Villar.

At the end of the 2,000-day waiting period, the Republican group has presented a proposal to urge reform and a clear timetable which will include the start of works this 2022. The measure has had the unanimous favorable vote, even from the Comuns, but Sanz has insisted on not scheduling it without their support. A loop that has surprised the rest of the games. Junts per Catalunya has put the finger on the sore by stressing that the budgets do not explicitly include an item for the Rambla, or even a reservation that certifies the political will to act. “They make the excuse of minor reports,” said Jordi Martí.

Struggle and accusations

From ERC, Jordi Coronas has gone to the jugular when pointing out that the Rambla is one more example of Colau’s “non-government”, which has led to his rejection of the budgets that will be voted initially this Wednesday in the Economy and Finance committee tomorrow Wednesday , as already advanced on Monday. “We ask you to commit,” he said, accusing the Commons of “thriller“, and insisting that they will not initially endorse the local accounts.” Having consensus, the delay is unjustifiable and the reform is compatible with the economic and commercial reactivation “of the area, they have pointed out from the PP. From Ciutadans they have regretted that even already the supposed horizon of 2030 is blurred for the end of works.

And so, a sum and continues of reproaches that the first deputy mayor of Urbanism has replicated, assuring that her party “has led” the reform project, and that it has means to carry out. “We have money, you don’t have to choose between one thing or the other, “he insisted, stressing that as soon as the famous Defense report arrives, they will present the final project for the final approval, but first “there must be budgets.”

The attitude of the government team has unnerved the Amics de la Rambla, who regret that at this point they have not yet been given answers about the innumerable allegations that they presented for the final document, where they affected various details, such as guaranteeing the exit from an affected parking lot through the Rambla, among others. The collective also insists on reduce the work phases to three, each one of 18 months, up to a total of 54 months, instead of taking it so long.

The one that is clear about its future is Via Laietana, whose reform will begin in spring, as the general preliminary draft and the project of the first section were initially approved with the support in this case of ERC and the opposite vote of the rest of the opposition for various aspects of the intervention. Within that first phase, which will go from the Plaza de Urquinaona to that of Antoni Maura, work will be done on the renovation of the subsoil starting in March, to start the works in June, which will have a initial cost of 16.8 million euros. When all the reform is completed, the 32.9 million.

The city council has indicated that when work begins on the service networks, two downward lanes will be maintained along the entire road – one for bus and one for vehicles; On the way up, the buses will divert towards the Paseo de Picasso and the vehicles will be able to reach the height of the Plaza de Antoni Maura. The merchants, who clamored so much for this transformation, are satisfied with the final layout.

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The road will have a segregated side uphill and downhill bike lane, the cyclists will share a lane with the bus, the sidewalks will have continuity and will reach four meters – now they are between 2.6 and 3.5 meters -, while there will only be private traffic going down with a lane limited to 30 kilometers per hour, and going up there will be a lane for buses and local traffic for residents of Via Laietana and Barceloneta.

Reference-www.elperiodico.com

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