Walking along Portal de l'Àngel is walking along one of the main commercial streets at a state level, and it is also walking on cracked and irregular cobblestones that cause more than one stumble and, on rainy days, unexpected splashes to those who step on them even hours later.
To bring the state of the avenue up to the level of its commercial offer, the City Council has launched the replacement of the street's pavement, with works that will have a cost of 2.8 million euros.
The works, distributed in various phases by sections of the street, will extend beyond this mandate, within the framework of the city's comprehensive maintenance plan, known as Pla Endreça.
Specifically, this year the first two phases of the reform will be executed, starting with the central pavement of Carrer dels Arcs and going up to Carrer Montsió, which represents about 2,500 square meters and an investment of 1.5 million euros. The intervention in the section that continues to Plaza Catalunya will be left for the next mandate, with an additional 1.3 million euros.
"The action stems from a joint surgical effort, of asking each district about priority actions," explains Bea Huarte, director of the City Council's Public Space Maintenance area and head of Pla Endreça.
In the case of Ciutat Vella, Portal de l'Àngel was chosen, among other interventions, because it is "a street with a lot of pedestrian demand, where an intervention like this had never really been done."
"We are going to lift everything," Huarte summarizes. Until now, only punctual actions and "patches" had been carried out, as evidenced by the fact that the stones covering the ground vary in tone on the gray scale in unconnected sections along the street.
The change, however, goes beyond what is visible. The granite pavement will be replaced by another with the same appearance, but thicker —up to 12 centimeters— and with a special treatment to make it adhere better to the lower concrete layer, which is also being renewed: "We were all aware that an integral intervention was needed that would not only touch the stone, but would go further down, to the base."
The works, which began in May, have started in the lower part of the avenue, where it merges with dels Arcs street, and will presumably soon jump to the upper section. As Huarte explains, the fragmentation of the works into phases responds to the desire to "minimize" their impact, also on mobility.
"Beyond the fact that we are already in an environment with many works, with those of Via Laietana and La Rambla on both sides, it is a very busy space." So much so that the City Council estimates that nearly 85,000 daily displacements are made in Portal de l'Àngel, mostly by pedestrians, with about 80,000, who will be able to stop worrying about tripping, at least, on the ground.