Malaga mayor seeks companies willing to take on urban coastal improvement plan

Although currently on hold, the Plan Málaga Litoral (coastal plan) remains on Mayor Francisco de la Torre's agenda. On Friday, the mayor participated in the general assembly and spring conference of the EIC, the European federation of construction companies with international operations. Addressing a large audience of business leaders from 13 countries at the Gran Hotel Miramar, De la Torre outlined the city's strengths and suggested projects in which these major construction companies could participate.

Among them, he mentioned the Costa del Sol railway, the perimeter road to improve communications with the eastern area and the transport interchanges planned within the coastal plan, the ambitious operation to bury traffic along the entire southern axis of the city centre and to build two underground bus stations under Explanda de la Estación and Plaza de la Marina.

Regarding this project, valued at over 400 million euros, De la Torre said that the city council will not be able to count on aid from the central government or the Andalusian regional government. Therefore, its future development relies on private companies willing to participate as partners. "We continue working in that direction," the mayor stated.

De la Torre is afraid there is "little investment capacity at both the central and regional government levels". "At the national level, budgets are in high demand to address social issues, pensions and I think that's fine," De la Torre said. He acknowledges that the state's investment capacity for a local operation like the coastal plan is "very limited".

However, the mayor did not miss the opportunity to mention the transport interchanges at Explanada de la Estación and Plaza de la Marina to leading European construction executives. "It's good to talk about these issues. Initiatives may emerge," he said.

As SUR reported in January, the drafting of the plans for both interchanges has not secured the European funding that the city council requested last year. At that time, the local ruling team approved a request to the EU for 2,250,000 euros to cover the costs of preparing the basic and construction plans. This required an additional contribution from the city council to complete the project development, worth 5,350,500 euros.

These are four preliminary drafts of the coastal plan that the city council has developed in recent years: the interchange at Plaza de la Marina, the interchange at Explanada de la Estación, the tunnel to bury traffic on the coastal axis and the project to connect the central park with the port's Palmeral promenade, transform Plaza de la Marina and pedestrianise Avenida de Cánovas del Castillo, generating a total of 100,000 square metres of new spaces for pedestrians.

De la Torre also highlighted before the European construction entrepreneurs the auditorium project, which he plans to launch this year and for which he expects to have the sponsorship of large companies that will contribute to its financing.

The meeting on Friday addressed issues related to the use of digitalisation and artificial intelligence in the work of construction entrepreneurs. Construction projects are already transformed with modular construction, 3D printers, the use of drones and sensors to monitor work, geolocation solutions and systems capable of predicting floods 24 hours in advance and simulating the behaviour of infrastructure in the face of extreme weather events.