The Badalona City Council (Barcelonès Nord) has initiated the procedures to begin during the summer of 2024 the repair work on the Pont del Petroli, the emblematic pontoon that was damaged in January 2020 due to storm Gloria. It was announced today by the mayor of Badalona, ??Xavier Garcia Albiol, in a public address in which he was accompanied by the deputy mayor of the Territory and Sustainability Area, Daniel Gracia, and the councilor for the Environment Area, Sonia Egea.
The mayor has indicated that the municipal government’s desire was for the bridge to regain the shape and appearance it had before it broke, as councilor Gracia announced that it would do on local radio, but in the end it will opt for the circular design “because The reports from the engineering company in charge of the project indicate that it is the only safe option and modifying the approach to achieve a design that preserves the previous structure could delay the works by three years.
The intention of not maintaining the design chosen in the popular consultation, the outline
Garcia Albiol, for his part, has expressed his displeasure with the decision of the previous city government to propose a debate on the design of the bridge and has highlighted that “a telematic consultation was carried out in a hurry, with a sample of less than 3%. of the population of Badalona, ??in which the option was given to choose a model that was not so safe and that could put the preservation of a symbol of the city at risk.
In this sense, the mayor has assured that “if you talk to the majority of residents of the city, their preference is to respect the spirit of the bridge and recover its original form, but given the situation we have found ourselves in, it is evident that we must prioritize safety and the quickest possible repair of the bridge.”
Given the technical reports, the municipal government has begun to finalize the procedures to begin the works during the month of May 2024 and be able to finish them at the beginning of the fall of the same year. The start of the action during the good weather is essential, since these are works totally conditioned by the weather and the state of the sea and must be carried out during the months of the year in which storms are most unlikely.
“The previous government had announced a schedule of works and reopening of the bridge that was absolutely non-existent, because all the essential procedures to carry out the action had not been done, so when we arrived at the Government we started working with the engineering company. to accelerate the project and be able to enjoy the bridge again as soon as possible,” said Mayor Garcia Albiol.
