In terms of infrastructure, there are projects that always appear on the pending works lists and never end up being realized. The bus lane entering Barcelona via the B-23 was one, until now. The works have finally been awarded and the start has been given to the construction work of an exclusive lane for buses from Sant Feliu de Llobregat to Diagonal.
In this way, a response is given to a demand that dates back to 2001, the date on which the first claim of Baix Llobregat mayors, political parties and passenger transport companies appeared in the La Vanguardia newspaper archive, all of them fed up with the congestion entering Barcelona every morning on the B-23 (at that time still the A-2 motorway) which trapped both private vehicles and buses in 2001 as well as in 2023. In these 22 years there have been many moments when it seemed that , but when an agreement was not crossed in the middle it was a crisis that sent everything into chaos.
Once the works begin on the ground, all this remains in battles for the politicians and technicians who have fought to achieve it. Now it’s time for the works, which will last about two and a half years, a little longer than initially planned, although after so many years of waiting no one wants to leave here. If nothing goes wrong, in the autumn of 2025 the new lane of about seven and a half kilometers in length will be enabled for the more than 600 buses that pass through this point every day, which will see the journey time cut by up to fifteen minutes in rush hour, when there are more traffic jams. Although it has been the mayors of the first crown of the Baix Llobregat who have presented the most battle for this infrastructure, the ones who benefit the most are the travelers from Igualada, Vilafranca and other points in the center of Catalonia who enter the big city through this expressway. Around four million passengers can benefit from it annually.
The investment in the action is 17.6 million euros at the expense of the Ministry of Transport, which will take advantage of European funds to finance the works. The drafting of the project and the tender, on the other hand, has been carried out by the Generalitat, following the model of the project that is to be replicated on the B-40 between Sabadell and Terrassa, although in this case there was a clear consensus both from councils as well as from employers, trade unions, economic, social and public transport entities.
The new exclusive lane for public transport will be located to the left of the entrance lanes to Barcelona and there will be no space left for private vehicles. The median will be used to gain space and asphalt and paint will suffice for a large part of the route. What will give the most work are the seven bridges and elevated structures on which it will be necessary to carry out more extensive works.
Even so, the fact that 22 years have passed until the start of works is particularly bloody because it is not a work that requires tunneling, nor urban modifications, nor major demolitions. The only thing missing was political will, which did not exist until Raquel Sánchez took charge of the Ministry of Transport and signed Xavier Flores as Secretary General of Infrastructure. The one who in his previous stage in the Generalitat had been the father of the project, and cursed that it was kept in a drawer for more than a decade, quickly conspired with his former colleagues in the Department of Territory to unblock the bus lane.
The start of the works was attended by Flores himself, as well as by the minister and the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès. Once the works are finished, the Catalan Government will assume the responsibilities of this road called to be increasingly urban and less of a motorway in a future transformation in the style of the Gran Via at the height of l’Hospitalet, but to see – we will still have to wait two more decades at least.
