Neighbors of Sant Joan de les Abadesses ask that a pending stretch of greenway between this town and Sant Pau de Segúries be completed. With the opening of this cycle route a few years ago, the volume of visitors has grown a lot. Q
now one of the neighbors of the Borja Solà area, the problem is that, while waiting for the missing section to be unblocked (Pont del Reixac-Pont Perella), a narrow path is used.
"It is in poor condition and there is much more bicycle traffic than before, when it was for local use and enough," he says. Cyclists and vehicles share the road, which, in some places, has unevenness and curves.
The Department of Territory explains that the project is in the drafting phase and that "aspects of the layout" must be finalized, without giving more details.
The neighbors watch helplessly as the days go by and the problem persists. "Until one day there is an accident," explains Borja Solà, director of the Les Planes del Grau hotel right in the middle of this road.
"We had a scare with a cyclist who was coming from Sant Pau, he cut the curve without waiting and a van was coming just ahead," he remembers, adding that at that time the next field did not have electric shepherds and the cyclist was able to enter to avoid the vehicle.
Solà emphasizes that they have nothing against cyclists - in fact many of their clients are. The problem is that they must use a local road because the pending greenway project for the Pont del Reixac-Pont Perella section has not been built.
"We don't know anything more since they stopped a year ago, before the municipal elections," he says. He adds that they do not know the reasons, "whether it is due to a neighborhood complaint or electoral reasons."
Montse is another neighbor who shares this concern. "We do not position ourselves on the projected layout, in the end we are all neighbors and we want everyone to be happy," she says. She admits that the current situation generates insecurity. "You suffer, especially during the good weather when there is a lot of traffic; the bicycles are confident and the cars have to be careful because suddenly a bicycle appears on the road," she points out.
Neighbors ask that signage be improved so that cyclists and pedestrians know that they share the road with vehicles, because now, they say, this does not happen.
"They think it is an exclusive use for bicycles and they go down quickly," says Solà. The most conflictive point is the one that goes from the Peasants' Cooperative to the Repunxó. There is a narrow bridge and railings in poor condition that connects with the hydroelectric plant to the hotel run by Solà. "Now, although it is not a section of bike lane nor is it conditioned, it is being used as such and a solution must be found," Montse points out.
The mayor of the municipality, Ramon Roqué, denounces that the project "should have already ended" and complains that the Department of Territory "has never addressed" the council since it was decided to "stop."
The mayor accuses the Generalitat of "lack of transparency" and points to a possible political decision since the project would have been stopped more than a year ago when ERC took over the Department of Territory with the departure of Junts from the Government.
From his point of view, the project, which was budgeted at more than one million euros, was already on track. According to him, "a prior report of expropriations had already been made, a technical director had been appointed and some meetings had been held with neighbors to improve some impacts and a tender for works was pending."
A year later, the City Council demands to be able to participate in the process of improving the layout and they are very critical of the ways in which it is being done. "To this day we have not been called on where it is," he emphasizes, "nor through its director of territorial services, the figure closest to the municipality," he stressed. The current director is Sergi Albrich, who was the ERC candidate in the Sant Joan municipal elections. "We understand that this way of doing things is opaque and does not respect the normal relationship between people and administrations," he says.
Sources from the Department of Territory categorically deny that the project has been stopped. "The project is being drafted, some aspects of the route are being finalized" without giving more details. And they add that, once "the project is closed", the works will be put out to tender.
