Neighbors who live on Gran Via in front of the Glòries shopping center saw cars disappear overnight almost two years ago. With the entry into service of the Glòries tunnel, they gained an immense public space that until then was the sole and exclusive property of the car. The then deputy mayor Janet Sanz opted to apply there also the tactical urbanism that she had already deployed in other parts of the city and the colored paint, the giant flower pots and the concrete blocks replaced the lines that delimited the eight lanes of the cars. Later came a gigantic zip line, calisthenics areas and tables to play ping-pong.
Once the new citizen use of that space has been consolidated, the socialists are willing to abandon the provisional nature and give definitive shape to the area by replacing the provisional tactical urbanism with a 21-meter-wide central promenade on the section of the Gran Via between Badajoz and Bilbao. 400 new trees – when drought restrictions allow them to be planted – will shade the children’s play areas and benches, making the summer stay bearable.
The calisthenics elements, the most frequented and used in the place right now, will also be maintained. “From a provisional urbanization we move to a structural urbanization that will provide much more quality,” says the current deputy mayor for Urban Planning, Laia Bonet.
This Monday, work on the first phase of urbanization will begin in the section that is just above the tunnel through which the cars go underground and do not appear until the other side of the square. Precisely one of the objectives of the action is to give continuity to this work with the Glòries park.
The works of the first phase, which affects approximately 27,000 square meters, will last one year and will involve an investment of 11.41 million euros. The final result gives shape to the winning proposal of the public competition, which is the work of the temporary union of companies formed by Esteyco, Trn Taryet and the JPAM architecture studio. The main element is the central promenade, which will occupy almost half of the 50-meter wide avenue. In addition, the sidewalk on the side of the residential buildings will also grow from the current five meters to 7.35 meters.
For vehicles, there will be a circulation lane on both sides of the promenade designed to be shared by neighbors’ cars and motorcycles as well as by services and bicycles and scooters. At the intersections with the cross streets and with the accesses to the shopping center, following the philosophy of the green axes of the Eixample, larger spaces with diverse uses will be created. The largest will be at the intersection with Escultors Claperós street, where it will host possible temporary events such as neighborhood fairs and festivals.
When the mountain side is finished, it will be time to face the second phase, the sea side of the avenue, where an important public transport work will be carried out: the doubling of the tram tracks, which circulate on a single track in that section. This is an improvement of the fundamental infrastructure for the future connection of the Trambaix and the Trambesòs along Diagonal.
The works are scheduled to begin when the first phase ends, at the beginning of next year, and finish in the spring of 20226. If the deadlines are met, this splitting will be a reality long before the installation of the tracks between Verdaguer and Francesc Macià , an action to which the Collboni government says it is committed, but which, for the moment, is not taking any steps to demonstrate it.
