The Consejería de Fomento, Infraestructuras y Ordenación del Territorio has awarded for 333,978 euros to Construcciones Glesa the works of urban adaptation of the Avenida de Lepanto in Serón, one of the main arteries and crossing of the municipality. This work, which has been rescued from the programme for the regeneration of public spaces in 2014, has a contribution of 70 percent from the Junta de Andalucía and 30 percent from the Town Hall. The awarding of the works comes a few months after the councillor for Public Works, Marifrán Carazo, and the mayor of Serón, Juan Antonio Lorenzo, signed the collaboration agreement for its execution.
For Eloísa Cabrera, the regional minister for Development in Almería, the current state of the crossing «made an urban transformation necessary, given that Avenida de Lepanto is a focal point of activity in Serón», where there are shops and homes, as well as the high school, the Guardia Civil barracks and the sports complex. The aim is to make the municipality «more habitable and respectful for pedestrians».
Avenida de Lepanto is located at the foot of the hill on which the historic centre of Serón is situated. Despite being the main street of the town, the avenue is an unsafe place for pedestrians, with sections without pavements, in poor condition or with obstacles that make it necessary to walk on the road. It also lacks sufficient width, with numerous fences, street furniture and large trunks of existing trees that do not comply with minimum accessibility measures. Similarly, the crossing is an obligatory passage to reach numerous services in Serón, which especially complicates the entrance and exit to the town centre at peak times.
This intervention, as Cabrera has assured, «will improve the space of Avenida de Lepanto, giving more prominence to pedestrians and cyclists. It will cover an area of just over 25,000 square metres, which will also include a connection with the municipality’s greenway through the Los Zoilos neighbourhood».
The urban adaptation of the crossing will be undertaken with a reduction in the width of the road, with special attention to the section between the junction with Calle Almería and the intersection with Calle Almazara. In addition, car parks will be created to meet the needs of loading and unloading and rotating parking spaces near the educational centre, the health centre and shops. Bicycle parking will also be guaranteed to facilitate cycling.
With this award, another of the 17 pending projects of the former Public Spaces Regeneration Programme (Prep), whose agreements date back more than seven years, has been reactivated. The urban improvement of Avenida de Lepanto in Serón joins other projects that have resumed their processing, such as the safe school paths in Mairena del Aljarafe, in Seville; the redevelopment of the Plaza de la Tenería in Motril, in Granada, and the environmental island in the historic centre of Castro del Río, in Córdoba, among others.
One of the objectives of the new housing plan of the Regional Ministry of Development, the Plan Vive en Andalucía, is the configuration of more habitable and pedestrian-friendly municipalities, with projects for the regeneration of public spaces. With this idea in mind, the Vive Tu Ciudad Plan was launched, with an investment of 40 million euros. Of these, 30 million correspond to projects that have benefited from calls for proposals during the current term of office, while the rest will make it possible to rescue actions from seven years ago, from the old Ciudad Amable programme that were never carried out. In total, it will involve the transformation of squares and streets in almost 60 Andalusian municipalities, with a surface area of 46 hectares.
