Puerto Banús to receive emergency street repairs by summer
Workers on Avenida Julio Iglesias in Puerto Banus. Scenes like this will be very common during the next four months.
Urban planners for the City of Marbella say they are alarmed at the degradation of some of the main avenues of Puerto Banús, the most heavily touristed section of the city, and it has announced that it will immediately implement a comprehensive plan to repair and upgrade the most important streets in the area, in time for the summer sailing season.
The project has a budget of over 260,000 euros, which the government of Andalucía has granted to the Marbella Tourism Plan. In order to accomplish the goal, Marbella will have to hire a record number of workers on an emergency basis. With an execution time of just four months, work will be undertaken on a phased basis in small sections, according to the city’s head of public works, Javier Garcia.
The Government says the bulk of the work will be completed before the summer, while the rest will be isolated and small in scope, with no disruption to tourist traffic, which last year exceeded a million visitors.
The passage of years has significantly deteriorated the condition of the pavement on the streets of Banús, to a point that prevents normal pedestrian traffic and seriously damages the image and quality of tourism in the port, Garcia says. Technical specifications for the project reveal how deeply concerned the government feels. Deterioration is not confined to the paving of the streets. “We found large gaps in the road, steel supports and medians,” says Garcia.
With only four months to complete most of the project, however, the city still has not awarded a contract. Garcia said the project will be awarded by negotiated procedure rather than bidding. It includes the restoration and replacement of pavement, street furniture, lighting and landscaping. Four major routes in Puerto Banús are included: Avenida Julio Iglesias, Francisco Villalón Street, Ramon Aceres Street and Benabolá Street. United Nations Avenue, the most important artery in the area, is not included in this project, given that the City Council has recently carried out improvements there, including new pavement.
The project is complemented by other improvements already underway in the district, Garcia says. These include the installation of ecological islands, as well as replacement of waste bins and repainting of street furniture completed in Banús last January. The is also the plan to prune the palm trees in the area. That work began last year,undertaken by the Department of Parks and Gardens with a budget of 250,000 euros.
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