The Badalona City Council (Barcelonès Nord) has ordered the evacuation of the 20 apartments at number 116 Ausiàs March street, located right at the back of Canigó street, where at the beginning of February a block collapsed and three people died. It is the fifth building to be evicted on the same block.
The deputy mayor of Territorio, Daniel Gracia, has announced that this Friday a technical inspection was carried out on the fourth floor of 116 Ausiàs March and some “serious” cracks were detected under the false ceiling of the house at door 2. According to Gracia, on Saturday there was already another inspection at door 4 of the same floor and it was considered that the cracks were superficial, but today it was found that they pose a risk to the structure.
The Ausiàs March street block is the fifth building vacated since the beginning of February. The rest are the crumbling property at number 9 Canigó Street, the immediately adjacent buildings (7 and 11) and number 5 on the same street. The case of the building evacuated this Friday is the first that is not on the same street, but located at the back of the block, which has a triangular shape along with Llefià street.
In this block there are more than 400 apartments that the City Council and the Generalitat agreed to technically inspect to detect possible structural damage, since they are buildings built by the same developer between 1954 and 1960. Just this week, the two administrations met and they committed to signing an agreement to finance these technical reviews.
While waiting for the agreement to be formalized, inspections began last week paid for by the City Council. As a result of these technical visits, several cracks have been detected. In most cases it has been decided to agree on successive evictions, although at number 3 Canigó Street it was decided to shore up some flats without the need for the neighbors to leave their homes. There have also been cases where the cracks have been considered superficial.
In the case of the evacuated properties, props have also been installed to guarantee security and to facilitate scheduled entries so that neighbors can collect some belongings. According to the government, the forecast is to complete the set of technical reviews in the more than 400 apartments during the first half of March.
