All the ambitious projects that, mandate after mandate, had been proposed to eliminate road traffic from the Alicante coastline - the burying that was managed in times of economic prosperity governed by Luis Díaz Alperi, and the imaginative proposal (too much, according to what was received and discarded almost immediately) by Gabriel Echávarri, who advocated a bypass that would cross the port through an underwater tunnel or a bridge, ended up in the trash.
The bipartisan government team chaired by the popular Luis Barcala left in the hands of his Town Planning councilor, Adrián Santos, candidate for Mayor for Citizens, a much less ambitious work that renounces pedestrianization, has suffered several delays and whose completion, according to It was announced yesterday, it will resume after the Bonfires festivities with the intention of concentrating on two months, July and August.
This plan makes it possible to avoid, on the one hand, building a road on which 45,000 vehicles circulate a day in the middle of the electoral campaign, and, on the other, aims to reduce the execution period sufficiently so that the return of school transport occurs without traffic jams that, if the Paseo de los Mártires de la Libertad were still under construction by that date, they would be unavoidable.
The City Council is aware of the inconvenience that the work will generate in the height of the tourist season, but is confident that visitors will be benevolent and that the alternative routes -the Avenida de la Estación-Alfonso el Sabio axis and the Gran Via- will be capable of absorbing without too many complications the summer traffic, generally less dense than during the course.
The work, far from involving pedestrianization, is limited to reducing the width of lanes and reducing speed, and increasing the existing pedestrian crossings by two. It seeks to "strengthen the axis of Castaños street -Plaza de Gabriel Miró - seafront of the port", narrowing the roadway of the current road and incorporating a median of 1.50 meters along the entire route, with trees and shrubs, in the manner of the South access.
The project also contemplates the elimination of spaces such as the split roundabout in the Plaza de Canalejas, which, together with the shared platform solution at the Paseo de los Mártires access to the city, tries to give continuity to the pedestrian route between the Esplanade and the Paseo de Canalejas, creating a new urban space in the place where the San Carlos bastion was located, a defensive element from the 18th century, a renovated space around the Canalejas monument.
The change of plans was confirmed yesterday by the spokesmen for the government team, Antonio Manresa and Manuel Villar. The planning provided by Urban Planning and Traffic initially contemplated that the works would be undertaken in three phases with partial restrictions on movement, but until now a total interruption had been ruled out.
The first phase concluded before Easter. It was announced that the next one would start after that holiday, but finally the total cut limited to summer has been chosen. Manuel Villar explained that the government team, even being aware of the inconvenience that will occur in the height of the tourist season, has considered that July and August are the months "in which it has been verified that the condition for the people of Alicante could be reduced". since many are on vacation, especially schoolchildren.
