The Font del Rei walkway, closed to passage since December 2020 due to structural problems, finally faces its replacement in Girona. The mayor, Lluc Salellas, announced this Monday to residents of Eixample that the works will begin in autumn, with an estimated duration of about thirteen months.
The announcement was made at a neighborhood meeting in which the mayor specified the municipal calendar for a long-awaited action at this connection point of the city. The municipal government will take next week to the plenary session the approval of the project's tender, with the forecast that the works can be awarded and start in the coming months.
"We count on them to start this autumn" - Lluc Salellas, mayor of Girona
A project of close to one million euros
The action is budgeted at close to one million euros. The definitive project was approved last summer and, in recent weeks, the local executive had already conveyed the need to tender the work as soon as possible to unblock an infrastructure closed for almost four years.
The footbridge was erected fifty years ago on a provisional basis, while the Font del Rei bridge was being designed. Over time, a technical report detected structural pathologies in its lower part, with rusted beams and damaged concrete slabs. That situation led to prohibiting pedestrian access in December 2020.
More width, accessibility and safety
The new walkway has been designed with three clear objectives. Improve accessibility, reinforce security, and make daily use more comfortable. To this end, the width will increase from 1.40 meters to 2.80 meters, an expansion that will allow its use by people with reduced mobility.
The project also foresees lighting on both sides of the structure to increase safety in this passage, as well as the placement of transparent railings with the idea of improving the comfort of users in their daily commutes.
Forecast of new name for the walkway
The Girona City Council also foresees that the future infrastructure will bear the name of actress and theater director Cristina Cervià, who died in 2019 due to cancer. If the deadlines managed by the council are met, the city will be able to recover this Font del Rei passage by the end of next year, after more than four years of closure.