The councilor of Sustainable City and spokesman for the Government of Porto, David Hernández (Portuense Citizen Assembly)announces the start of procedures to contract a feasibility study on the location of the future auditorium in the plot of the old bus station. A document that, according to him, “will provide the necessary technical and legal criteria for decision-making regarding the future cultural center of the city».
The Sustainable City and Planning area of the Puerto de la Cruz City Council has launched the procedures to contract the drafting of this feasibility study. Hernández has recently issued an order in which he provides that the corresponding contracting file be instructed by the municipal services to “have a technical document that proposes an execution alternative for that block based on the uses foreseen by the planning and that determines, specifically, the feasibility of the plot housing an auditorium with characteristics similar to those proposed for San Francisco Parkbut with more capacity », explains the mayor.
the sun of the old bus station has been abandoned since 2009, when the facility was closed to the public due to its advanced state of disrepair. There is already a previous study on the urban conditions of the block and the alternative uses that it could house, to which now, among other modifications, the future auditorium could be added. Hernández acknowledges that “the development of the process to project a cultural space on the plot of land where San Francisco Park has suffered many drawbacks. From the outset, the site does not meet the most suitable conditions, since due to its small surface, the capacity is excessively limited and, in addition, two basement floors would have to be built, which would exceed the water table at low tide, notably hindering the construction site”.
“In addition to the danger that it would pose to the historical and cultural heritage of the city, continuing with the project on the San Francisco Park plot would, with a high degree of probability, entail new increases in cost”
Due to these conditions, the mayor underlines “the risk involved in the construction, described in the geotechnical studies in which the technicians explicitly show their concern about exceeding the vibration thresholds and, consequently, of transmission of movements to the load-bearing walls of the Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) of the Church of San Franciscowhich could be affected.
For Hernandez, “in addition to the danger it would pose to the historical heritage and cultural heritage of the city, continuing with the project in these conditions would entail, with a high degree of probability, new increases in cost, which It has already gone from 5 to 21 million euros without even having started the execution».
Hernandez states that “It is not about spending more or less money, but about using it rigorously and with guarantees that the result is what is sought. In his opinion, “the most sensible thing is to look for alternatives that allow the construction of an auditorium with a capacity more in line with the needs of the city and in a place that presents more adequate conditions, such as those that, in principle, meet the plot of the old bus station».
