El Moralet area is open, the great green lung of the city

Benidorm has completed the works for the environmental improvement and public use of El Moralet, one of the most emblematic actions of the Sustainable and Integrative Urban Development Strategy of Benidorm. "With this action, we have valued El Moralet as an accessible, safe and comfortable green lung for the enjoyment of citizens," explained the mayor of Benidorm Toni Pérez today during the inspection visit of the commissioning of these works. "We are moving towards the green Benidorm that we have been designing in recent years with a large green ring that will connect the residential area of ​​the city from north to south and from Levante to Poniente."

El Moralet, with more than one million square meters, becomes itself a large green space connected to the urban fabric with works that have also included the construction of three recreational areas, very close to the urban centre in the high areas de Foietes and Poniente, so that families, neighbours and tourists can comfortably enjoy this privileged natural environment. These recreational areas include all kinds of urban furniture, including tables, chairs and children's play areas, such as swings, zip lines or calisthenic elements, for the recreation of the general population, recreational areas that today are in turn the three gateways to the environment itself from which the circuits and paths defined in it are developed.

“Today we visit the El Moralet park, completely finished according to the project presented and conditioned so that the residents of Benidorm, sports lovers, tourists and visitors can enjoy this great green park, the one that has most respected the environment in its original state of those we have developed so far” has transferred the mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez who today has visited the completion of the works accompanied by a corporate and institutional delegation. The mayor has highlighted that the "new three recreational areas are now ready to be used" and that "the circuits, paths and trails, completely rehabilitated, have already been used for some sporting and solidarity events."

And it is that one of the great improvements that this action has brought about has been the rehabilitation of about 10 kilometres of paths and 7 kilometres of trails, creating and signalling three new routes-circuit of varying difficulty for the practice of hiking, walking or mountain biking or BTT, the result of the collaboration of the Department of Sports with sports clubs, such as Benidorm Athletics Club, especially its BTT section, or the Benidorm Cycling Club, which have actively participated in the development of the works project.

“One of the most pleasant and attractive routes is the old train route,” Mayor Toni Pérez explained in today's presentation. “We have taken advantage of the ballast that was used as a base to build the tracks to create fences and a wide and accessible path so that everyone can walk enjoying El Moralet in a sustainability action that has been avoided, by reusing the material that already exists in the layout, the displacement of this material to other points with the consequent mobilization of heavy vehicles, thus avoiding unnecessary fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.”

The El Moralet improvement project also improves the city's urban connectivity, connecting the city's residential fabric. These works have enabled three access areas to this green lung: one in the Ciudad Deportiva Guillermo Amor, another on Beniardà avenue and a third on Vicente Pérez Devesa avenue. The three new recreational areas have been built very close to the entrances, so that residents can enjoy them without leaving their neighbourhoods, and include wooden bike racks to promote sustainable transport.

But these works have not only improved the accessibility and mobility of El Moralet: one of the fundamental parts of this project was the environmental rehabilitation of the area to protect it against climate change. The action has included improvements such as a firebreak area to prevent environmental disasters in the event of fires, the recovery of eroded areas with replanting, the restoration of terraces and the installation of shelters for birds. With the collaboration of the Marina Baixa Firefighters Consortium, hydrants have been installed at two of the accesses to El Moralet that will allow possible fires to be put out quickly in this natural area using the water from the canal.

This action responds to the sixth Thematic Objective of the EDUSI which seeks the "improvement of urban areas, green areas and depressed spaces." The works, whose budget amounts to €908,303.59, of which €454,151.79 have been contributed by European ERDF funds, will create a large green ring that will connect different residential neighbourhoods.

ABOUT THE EDUSI OF BENIDORM:

The Pluriregional Operational Program of Spain 2014-2020, and the Operational Program for Sustainable Growth (POCS) promote the DUSI strategy, for Sustainable and Integrated Urban Development, of which Benidorm, as established in the Resolution of May 4, 2018, published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) of the Order of the Third Call HFP/888/2017, has managed to opt for and obtain financing from the FEDER aid of 10 Million Euros, through its EDUSI BENIDORM strategy.

The EDUSI BENIDORM is made up of a series of thematic, specific, strategic and operational objectives, encompassed through 13 Lines of Action, whose social, environmental, economic and urban impact on the city aims to transform a delimited urban area of the city into the to intervene and regenerate comprehensively, for the sake of producing an impact and global improvement in the city.