The new park-and-ride parking space on Beniardá Avenue will be operational before the start of summer.

The improvements to the park-and-ride facility on Beniardá Avenue are progressing according to schedule, and it is expected to be operational before the end of June. This was confirmed this morning by Mayor Toni Pérez, Councilors Ana Pellicer (Citizen Participation) and Francis Muñoz (Public Space), and residents, who visited the construction site as part of the "At Street Level" campaign to learn about the future parking facility and the progress of the work.

The project, entitled "Sustainable Urban Drainage System for the Implementation of the Park-and-Ride Facility on the Moralet Municipal Plot," represents an improvement and upgrade of the existing parking area on the avenue and is included in the Tourism Sustainability Plan, Action 13, "Benidorm Vision 360." The project is 100% funded by the European Union's Next Generation EU program, as part of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan within the Sustainable Tourism Destinations Plan, and has a budget of €1,548,717.93.

The project was awarded to the company MOA, and the work is being carried out on an area of ​​approximately 17,244 square meters, with a parking area of ​​15,018 square meters. The project, which includes 360 fully landscaped, painted, and illuminated parking spaces, involves the installation of a rainwater collection system. It includes installing a drainage mesh so that any water the ground cannot absorb will flow into pipes currently being installed, which will be connected to a main drainage network that will carry the water to the ravine.

Additionally, the necessary infrastructure is being implemented in the underground area of ​​the parking lot to provide future charging points for electric vehicles. The new parking area will also include a perimeter pedestrian walkway to facilitate access to the spaces.

Mayor Toni Pérez emphasised that “we continue to invest in an issue as important to this local government as improving the availability of free public parking, in this case with a project for which we secured European funding and which will greatly improve this space.”

He further specified that “the entire design will be based on sustainability criteria.” He continued, explaining that the project “is part of the general sustainable mobility strategies we have been implementing in Benidorm since 2015” and that it “will promote the use of public transport and bicycles as a means of getting around the city.”

This project aims to organise and control a plot of land used by many residents and visitors, which acts as a park-and-ride facility and significantly reduces the number of vehicles travelling through the city, especially in the immediate urban area. In this regard, the project is improving part of the existing esplanade by adjusting the slopes and installing the aforementioned sustainable drainage systems for water runoff. The intervention involves the use of sustainable materials that promote the environmental and landscape integration of the parking area within the immediate vicinity of El Moralet Park.

The paving of the land includes access roads, parking spaces, green areas, a pedestrian walkway over green areas, a landscape regeneration area, and a pedestrian access zone for people with reduced mobility. The project also includes the installation of an electrical grid, public lighting, and sustainable drainage and irrigation systems, as well as street furniture, an access control system, vehicle counting, and the implementation of signage, safety features, and road markings. The project specifies that the parking area will have a capacity for approximately 500 vehicles, with spaces for people with disabilities and for family vehicles.

The ongoing works have not prevented users from parking their vehicles, although in this case, they are doing so in an adjacent lot with space for around 500 cars. This lot, incidentally, will remain open once the current parking improvement works are completed.