CONTINOUS REFURBISHMENT
The
intense process of urban and economic refurbishment carried out by
Barcelona during the last twenty years has gained a wide international
recognition due to its ambition and achieved economic and social
results.
After the first transformation taken place thanks to the
Olympic Games, which consolidated the opening of the city to the sea
and to its metropolitan areas, Barcelona has started a second
refurbishment to allow the reinforcement of its international
projection and the implementation of more innovative activities of
knowledge-based economies.
WESTERN REFURBISHMENT
Delta del Llobregat Plan
promotes the strategic development of logistic and transport activities
in the South-East part of the city, representing 4.500 millions Euros
and consisting of:
• Extension of El Prat International Airport, capable of transoceanic flights and of doubling its number of passengers to 40 millions annually.
• Diversion of the mouth of Llobregat
river three kilometres to the South that allows to double the area of
Barcelona Port (760 to 1.300 hectares) and increase four-fold its
Logistic Activities area (65 to 263 hectares).
• Extension of the road and railway infrastructure network,
that implies important improvements in the Litoral ring road, the
arrival of the High-speed train to the airport and the construction of
more than 80 kilometres of metro and train railway.
• Extension of the Feria de Barcelona fair until reaching 15 hectares of land, that will turn it into the second most important fair site of Europe
• The development of several projects related to Environmental protection that
include the construction of a new sewage treatment plant and several
renewal projects along the coastline and in spaces of ecological
significance in the Delta del Llobregat.
EASTERN REFURBISHMENT
The
renewal of Eastern Barcelona is to permit the creation of new areas of
centrality that increase social cohesion and business competition of
the Poblenou neighbourhood and of the entire city, and includes the
following:
• Las Glorias square
signals the access to 22@Barcelona and its surroundings gathering in
several important cultural facilities such as the Catalonia National
Theatre, the Barcelona Auditorio and the Archive of the Aragon Crown;
plus the future Design Museum, the Plaza de las Artes and the Campus
Audiovisual of 22@Barcelona district, that will turn this new area of
centrality into a powerful cultural centre of the Metropolitan Area of
Barcelona. • Universal Forum of Cultures,
that has involved a radical renewal of a urban sector which was before
featured by a strong presence of technical and sanitary premises, to
integrate it into the dynamics of the city transforming it into a basic
cultural and economic hub. This transformation has allowed the
biggest centre of conventions of Southern Europe and the Forum to be
built —that culminates in the arrival of the Diagonal Avenue to the
sea. Apart from these two projects, the construction of the future
Interuniversity Campus of the Besós (b_TEC)
should be added. With 60.000 m² of teaching spaces and 60.000 m² more
devoted to development and research departments in collaboration with
companies. • La Sagrera intermodal station,
combining metro, buses, metropolitan and regional trains with the
High-speed train. The new station will link Barcelona to Madrid in two
and a half hours and with Perpignan in forty five minutes, and will
bring together 22@Barcelona and El Prat airport in only eleven minutes. |
