Another step forward, the last one for the total transformation of Avenida Meridiana in Barcelona. The City Council has completed the preliminary studies of the last section of this route into and out of the city that still needs to be reformed, the one that goes from Frabra i Puig to the Sarajevo bridge.
Work is currently being carried out on the section between Navas de Tolosa-Josep Estivill and Felip II street, with the expectation of having them ready this summer. In parallel, in January the executive project for the area between Felip II and Fabra i Puig was initially approved, which is expected to be definitively approved in April.
Barcelona City Council today presented to the residents of the Meridiana the preliminary studies for redevelopment up to the Sarajevo bridge. The drafting of the draft will be done in the next municipal mandate.
The new space to be urbanized is about 2.5 kilometers long, which today constitutes an urban motorway in and out of Barcelona.
In the Nou Barris district, it has a road with 5 entry lanes (3 for circulation, 1 for VAO bus and one for bus) and 4 exit lanes (3 for circulation and 1 for bus) in the bulk of the section, between Fabra i Puig and the Santa Coloma promenade.
On the Sant Andreu district side, the road includes a traffic lane and a double service cordon. This road is depressed with respect to the previous one and is separated by a wall that makes accessibility and transversality difficult. The origin of this discontinuity between neighborhoods goes back to the construction of the current urban motorway, which led to the creation of a high point at the confluence with Paseo Valldaura to connect the neighborhoods through the Dragó bridge (above the train and under the freeway).
Previous studies propose eliminating all these barriers, both the road and the wall of Sant Andreu. To do this, traffic lanes will be reduced and the current wall will be demolished. The big change will consist of making the level crossing between Paseo de Valldaura and Avenida Meridiana.
The proposal proposes to recover the original slope of the Meridiana and place the entrance road at the Nou Barris level and the exit road at the Sant Andreu level, eliminating the wall. The existing unevenness is saved with a landscape median that includes a wide, bidirectional and segregated central bike lane, and that allows for some slanted steps to achieve gentle and accessible slopes to cross the avenue, thus recovering connectivity between neighborhoods.
The studies plan to implement a bus lane, two traffic lanes and a HOV bus lane in the input direction; and in the exit direction, a bus lane and two traffic lanes, in most of the section (between Fabra i Puig and Paseo Santa Coloma). Thus, one traffic lane will be reduced in each direction and the segregated road located at the Sant Andreu level, on the other side of the wall, will be completely eliminated. The intervention complements the expansion of the Sant Andreu sidewalk, which would go from 3.5 to 18 meters.
The new section will have more trees (1,200 new units) and flower beds (54,153 square meters) and pedestrian crossings will be increased, from the current 9 to 18 (one every 133 meters). The area used for roads will be reduced from the current 109,600 square meters to 70,600, 36% less.
With this intervention, the current Dragó bridge will disappear. The reduction of level will make it possible to demolish this infrastructure and eliminate the border between neighborhoods.
The section of the stretch between Paseo Santa Coloma and the Sarajevo bridge will also gain space for pedestrians. There will be a new sidewalk and traffic lanes will be rearranged.
When this final stretch is completed, action will have taken place over more than 5 km of the Meridiana, from Plaça de les Glòries to the Sarajevo bridge. According to the Barcelona City Council, the interventions carried out so far have made it possible to reduce traffic on the avenue by some 17,000 vehicles per day.
