Logroño, (EFE) traumatic for the area”, which will have a lower cost than its predecessor, even if it does not receive aid from European funds.
This was stated by the mayor this Tuesday, in an informative conference, in which the Councilor for Town Planning, Javier Martínez Mancho, also participated.
Escobar explained that this work was initially awarded last January with a budget of 1.1 million euros, of which half, less than 600,000 euros, would be covered by European funds, but on June 22, “The company requested the termination of the contract due to a delay in the start of works and this situation has been taken advantage of” to dismiss them.
He has indicated that on June 20 the local government met with associations, neighbors, merchants and those affected by the planned works on Sagasta Street, who “did not know in detail what was intended to be done” by the previous municipal executive.
The project that has been withdrawn, has continued, included “a single platform, which would mean a new paving, raising the asphalt and sidewalks and altering the entire behavior of the central drains,” said Escobar.
In addition, “it would be necessary to alter the layout of the pipes and that may entail altering more daily aspects”, he stressed, and it has been assessed that “it is a main street that connects the north and the south”.
He highlighted that Sagasta street overlooks one of the entrances to the San Blas Market, whose works are “advanced and must be taken into account because the operation of this market depends on the flow of goods being well attended.”
For this reason, Escobar has indicated, as a solution, to prepare another intervention, which will be more economical, will maintain the two-way traffic road, the sidewalks, the curbs and the sanitation network that currently works, and will improve pedestrian routes in the intersections with Portales, Ruavieja and Marqués de San Nicolás streets.
NOT BEING KIDNAPPED BY EUROPEAN FUNDS
“Now we are recomposing a new project, which allows us to take advantage of, as far as possible, European financing”, and, “even if we do not have it, we are going to try to ensure that this does not happen, the cost for the Consistory would be less than project that is abandoned, and the result of this intervention will be more satisfactory”, he emphasized.
He stressed that the local government does not want to “be kidnapped by the dynamics of European funds, there are magnificent European financing lines, but those that are not, there will be no qualms about saying so because the funds are an instrument at the service of certain objectives ”.
The councilor of the capital of Rioja has indicated that “the most important thing is that the project has a meaning, which is not to obtain European funds, it is that the city improves and that commerce works.”
He has pointed out that, after the resolution of this project, those of Duquesa de la Victoria, Avenida de Portugal and San Antón streets will be reviewed through “a calendar already set and that we are following.”
For his part, the former mayor of Logroño and socialist municipal spokesman of Logroño, Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza, in a statement, described this Tuesday as a “major error” the decision of the local government of the PP not to carry out the work to improve the street Sagasta financed by Europe.