Benidorm opts for FEDER funds with a project to implement new stretches of bike lanes and join the entire Levante network

The City Council is going to be present to the Generalitat Valenciana a project to create new stretches of bike lanes and join the entire Levante network. Through this project, Benidorm opts to the Operational Program of the European Regional Development Fund of the Valencian Region 2014-2020 launched by the Generalitat, which this year premium projects driven by local administrations linked to mobility and / or historical heritage.

This project and the intention to present the call published last November has been reported today in the Mobility Council, as reported by the councillor of the area, José Ramón González de Zárate, who has assured that the proposal "has not received no votes against. "

De Zárate explained that "the call is mainly aimed at the development of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (PMUS)", although it is also open to the implementation of bicycle lanes. The mayor recalled that Benidorm already has a SUMP, so the only way to qualify for the call is through projects that apply sustainable mobility.

The project proposes to implement the bike lane in various Levante roads to add about 12 kilometers of new sections. Specifically, in the avenues Europe, Derramador, Valencian Community, Bernat de Sarriá, Atmella del Mar, Severo Ochoa -in the sections still without service- Beijing, Sierra Dorada and Hamburg. In addition, it proposes converting the avenues Ciudad Real, Zamora, Ibiza, Lepanto, Rome and London into cycle-streets.

The person in charge of Mobility has indicated that the implementation of these new sections will allow the configuration of a cycle lane ring that will extend "from the roundabout of the European Community with Europe to the Hermitage of Sanz", through the old N-332. At this point, link with the section made by the Provincial Council of Alicante on CV-753 -the road that connects with El Albir-, to follow later by Bernat de Sarriá. He also stressed that "we make a nod to sports tourism" to implement bike lane in the area of ​​influence of Serra Gelada Natural Park "to climb the Cross, the Tower of Les Caletes and Punta del Cavall."

The councillor said that during the meeting of the Mobility Council it has been promoted that "on the roads planned as cycle-streets, with a length of just over 3 kilometers in which there is room for a lane-bike, this second option is chosen" ; and linking the new sections with the cycle tracks of Serra Gelada.

De Zárate has indicated that the subsidies foreseen in the call are directed to projects that are located in the range "of more than 100,000 euros and less than one million". In principle, the idea of ​​the City Council is that the municipal project reaches the maximum amount. If the grant is obtained, half of the cost of the project would be subsidized through the Generalitat with European funds. Otherwise, "when the City Council has a budget or subsidy from any other administration, this project will come true".