The operators and machines work at multiple points on Via Laietana with the aim of having the first section of the remodeling, between Urquinaona and Antoni Maura squares, ready in September, after 17 months of work, three more than expected. mainly due to the appearance of archaeological remains in various areas. When this phase is finished, work will begin on the second, up to Paseo de Colom, with a much longer schedule, 21 months. The merchants do not like that the inconveniences they have already experienced go on for so long and they ask for corrections.
“The City Council let us know that the duration of the second phase of the works could reach twenty months,” says David González, from the association that brings together most of the businesses in the area. It is a brutal affectation! Much more than we expected. We ask the new government to speed up these works as much as possible.” But what worries them the most are the effects on public transport. “Citizens can now go down the entire axis, but from September they will not be able to go up by bus or taxi. People will have to do some incredible laps. This situation will further fuel our isolation, but it will also generate problems in the Born and the Gòtic”.
The improvement works on metro line 4 –which runs under Via Laietana– that will be carried out this summer will force the closure of the service between Verdaguer and Bogatell from June 26 to July 31 and on the Verdaguer-Barceloneta section from 1 to August 28– and will require a substitute shuttle bus that has been thought to go along this avenue under renovation, in both directions. Thus, during that time the road will be used in the same way as the final one. Now only the section of the second phase is open in the mountain direction, still without works, but only for residents, access to car parks and services. Higher up, up to Urquinaona, it remains closed.
In the area that is being transformed, the sidewalks have grown and the road has been reduced. The definitive section is practically ready, although the pavement is missing in many areas, the furniture, the lampposts, the vegetation… The lanes were painted this Sunday following their final scheme. Downhill, one shared by buses, taxis and bikes and another for general traffic limited to 30 km/h, although in yellow, since paving is missing, an operation that was expected to be carried out this month and that has been moved to September, when end of the metro intervention. The climb, when it reopens, will consist of a lane for buses and local circulation, and another exclusively for bikes. During the second phase, this direction will be closed in the section that will be remodeled, which will make it difficult for buses to pass in that direction.
Although there are New Jersey fences and barriers in many areas, the new Via Laietana is already palpable. The most backward area is the Plaza Antoni Maura, especially on the side of Avenida de la Catedral, where some of the archaeological remains that have appeared remain in the open air. It contrasts with the one that overlooks Francesc Cambó, very advanced and already with new paving and flower beds in most of its surface. At the other end, Jonqueres street, included in this macro-project, once dedicated to traffic going up to Urquinaona and now pedestrianized, already has a row of trees and its paving as a single platform is being completed.
