Straddling the municipalities of Barcelona and Montcada i Reixac, an old aqueduct will serve to build bridges between the neighborhoods of Can Cuiàs and Ciutat Meridiana. It is a historical demand of the neighbors who save the current municipal borders as they can. To go from one place to another to buy, to the doctor, the little ones to the school or to the sports facilities they have to take a turn of more than half a kilometer over steep slopes. Another option is to take the metro one stop or the bus. The other alternative, and no less frequent, consists of taking a short cut by descending a ravine through a path, a point that is dangerous when it rains as it is prone to slipping. For many years, the neighborhood has been demanding that the administrations provide a footbridge for pedestrians in this infrastructure. A lawsuit that seems to be closer after repeated delays.
Recently, the technicians have carried out some tastings to learn about the construction elements of this infrastructure and to be able to draw up the executive project for comprehensive rehabilitation and make the monument passable. Different options have been evaluated and the final one involves placing a structure on the same aqueduct. The forecast is that the project will be completed before the summer and the works will be carried out in the next term, municipal sources report.
In 2015, the insistence of the residents allowed the proposal to be included in the action plan of the Nou Barris district, although it was ultimately unsuccessful. Within the framework of the pact of the municipal government of commoners and socialists with ERC in 2011 to invest in local projects in the districts, an item of 40,000 euros was enabled for the drafting of the project.
The residents welcome the measure, although they are skeptical. “I didn’t believe it until the metro arrived at Can Cuiàs. Well, the same thing with the aqueduct walkway and even more so now that the elections are coming up!” comments a neighbor who has lived in Can Cuiàs for more than three decades. “The neighborhood is getting older and it is necessary to improve connectivity as much as possible,” says José Muñoz, a 75-year-old resident of Ciutat Meridiana. “Around here you see many elderly people with the shopping cart going from Ciutat Meridiana to the Can Cuiàs shopping center,” adds his wife Pilar de él. In this Barcelona neighborhood, some of the sections of the new reversible escalators planned to overcome unevenness have already been installed.
In addition to facilitating the mobility of residents between the two neighborhoods, the initiative aims to preserve this heritage that dates back to the 19th century. “It is a patrimonial element that gives personality, historical memory and must be preserved. It is also very positive to use it as a gateway to unite the two neighborhoods. We want the borders not to separate us and act as hinges”, highlights the president of the territorial area of ??the Montcada i Reixac City Council, Jordi Sánchez.
The councilor recalls that within the framework of the Consorci del Besòs other connection projects have been promoted between the two municipalities, such as the construction of the Oristà path. Both City Councils have also asked the Barcelona Metropolitan Area to take over the management and maintenance of the Cultures viewpoint, located on the Can Sant Joan mountain, so that it can become a metropolitan park.
In some parts of the aqueduct there is humidity due to leaks and weeds have taken root occasionally due to lack of maintenance. Graffiti has also taken over different areas of this monument. The building is part of a larger work, the Vallès aqueduct, an installation that transported water to the city after the Rec Comtal was insufficient to supply an expanding city. The canalization was about 18 kilometers long and carried more than 1,700 cubic kilometers of water from the Sec and Ripoll rivers and from the Caldes stream.
The works began in 1825 according to the project of the municipal architect Josep Mas Vila, the same one who was in charge of making the neoclassical façade of the Barcelona City Hall, as recorded in an inventory of the local architectural heritage service of the Diputació de Barcelona. The hydraulic infrastructure maintained its function until the second half of the 20th century, when it was overwhelmed by the needs of the population increase, for which reason the channeling of the River Ter began. The old aqueduct is kept waiting for a new life.