Many wonder why it takes 21 months to carry out the second phase of the transformation of Via Laietana, which has just begun in the section of about 600 meters in length between Piazza Antoni Maura and Paseo de Colom. The City Council's response is that it is not just a redevelopment of the surface, of what is seen. Also about what is done underground. Very complex actions are being carried out to improve the collectors and service galleries in this section sandwiched between the double metro tunnel and the houses.
The merchants on Via Laietana have demanded, without success, that the deadlines for this second phase be shortened, which is added to the first, between the Urquinaona and Antoni Maura squares, of a similar length, which started in March 2022 and is almost finished. So much time with the street upside down will be lethal, they have warned, because it makes it difficult to move on foot and also by private vehicle, bus or taxi, as passage has been restricted and monumental traffic jams have been generated. The City Council recognizes that it takes twice as long as before the works to travel through this entire axis.
“This is not a skin job, but rather an arrangement of services that are underground and that require highly complex work,” explained this Monday Ricard Font, general director of the municipal company Bimsa. An action only on the surface, he has pointed out, “would be done in seven or ten months.” Working on both sides of the street at the same time reduces the intervention time more or less in half. But it forces motorized traffic to be affected more. Of course, access for vehicles to garages and people to buildings and businesses will be ensured at all times.
What is going to be carried out under Via Laietana is not exceptional, but it has a strong impact as it is such a central and busy artery. The schedule of the works is determined by the aforementioned interventions in the subsoil, with century-old structures. Until these are completed, it will not be possible to act on the surface where the scheme of the first phase will be replicated: the widening of the sidewalks from 2.5 meters to 4 meters, and the reduction of space for vehicles, leaving one downhill lane. for general traffic and another shared by buses, taxis and bicycles, and one uphill for buses and local traffic and another segregated for bicycles. The manager of Urban Planning and Housing, Joan Cambronero, recalled that the new axis is “more sustainable, friendlier, prioritizes pedestrians and facilitates the relationship between neighborhoods with connecting spaces” in Jonqueres, Antoni Maura, plaza de l' Àngel and Correus-Idrissa Diallo.
Since the galleries cannot be visited, to identify the cables and pipes that appear in the plans, tastings must be carried out, which are about to begin and will continue until November. In parallel, and until December, the collectors, which are at the ends of the street, touching the facades, will be repaired. They will be coated with a new ceramic that, among other improvements, helps water flow better. To do this, the mining system will be used, opening wells from the sidewalks, which will have to be closed. Therefore, pedestrians will pass through the road, through a space already separated with New Jersey barriers, both concrete and plastic, the latter necessary to provide access to emergency services (ambulances and firefighters) in case of need.
Between November and March, the water and gas services that are now in the galleries will be moved to new pipes next to the facades, so they will have to be opened level. From December to May, temporary prisms will be built between the metro and the galleries through which the electricity, telephone and telecommunications conduits will pass. The transfer will take place between February and July. And from June to October, the final prisms through which these supplies will go will be built. The current galleries will be used but only the upper part. The rest will be demolished and filled with earth. The new connections will be launched between November 2024 and January 2025. The urbanization work will start a little earlier, in December and will continue until June 2025.
The works of the second phase, which began two weeks ago, have complicated circulation along the entire Via Laietana. While they last, the City Council recommends avoiding this route by private vehicle. Between Antoni Maura and Paseo de Colom there is only one downhill lane (the mountain direction is closed in this section), which acts as a funnel and causes very long queues in the two downhill lanes at the top. The manager of Mobility, Infrastructure and Urban Services, Xavier Paton, explained that adjustments have been made to the traffic light phases towards Correus to give more time and a second lane has been enabled in the last grid that increases its capacity.
