The PP mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, chose in the last electoral campaign a project as old as it is necessary at the urban level of the city as a banner of protest and at the same time as an element of confrontation against the central government presided over by Pedro Sánchez.
Once the works of the railway access channel began under the previous mandate of Joan Ribó, which will eliminate the tracks that currently divide the southern neighborhoods and compromise the central station and the transit tunnel, giving rise to the Parc Central, Catalá was designated as a target the burial of the Serreria roads, which also represent a physical barrier in the connection of the Alameda and Avenida de Francia with the future development of El Grau.
An objective that is not new, however. The former mayor, Joan Ribó, had already claimed it, who had also managed to obtain from the then Minister of Transport, José Luis Ábalos, the commitment to prepare an informative study on the alternatives. But it was also, along with the entire representation of Central Park, a justification of the former mayor of the PP for 24 years, Rita Barberá.
On several occasions since the last election campaign, Catalá has brandished the government’s reluctance to finance 100% of the cost of the works as a weapon against the executive of Pedro Sánchez, whom he has accused of “discrimination” against the city.
The Government’s objections are due to the fact that it considers that the burying of these tracks is a purely urban planning action and that from the point of view of railway operation it is not necessary. A vision that is not new. In fact, it was the executive of Mariano Rajoy, led by the then Minister of Development, Ana Pastor, who, in January 2015, denounced this project that the then mayor, Rita Barberá, had included in the revision of the General Urban Plan (PGOU) currently being processed.
According to the allegations document that elDiario.es has had access to (complete at the end of the information), regarding the burying of Serreria and another section of another line between San Isidro and Xirivella, the Ministry considered that the PGOU should reflect the current situation of these tracks, that is, on the surface, and added: “The Ministry of Public Works does not plan to carry out underground works in these areas because from the point of view of the needs of the railway, it is not necessary.”
Furthermore, it specifies that “investments related to improvements in urban integration (burial, roofing, viaducts, etc.) are works of an urban planning nature, so they must be assumed directly by the local and regional administrations competent in urban planning” and insisted that “in the cases mentioned, given that they are operations that are not necessary for railway operation, the Ministry of Public Works had not included any item in the General State Budgets”. In conclusion, the Ministry of Development of the PP resolved: “The simplified revision of the PGOU of Valencia cannot be reported positively. The plans must reflect the current situation of the railway network.”
To this allegation, the city council responded that “the railway burials that are included in the urban plans are part of the strategic vision of the plan and this is what the Company considered, so, logically, they should be reflected therein.”
But it was finally the ministry now led by the socialist Óscar Puente that reached an agreement with Catalá to co-finance the project. The mayor announced it on July 24: “We are committed to this consensual solution, which we certainly consider optimal for both parties, and which involves the burying of the Serrería tracks and, therefore, the connection to Penya-Roja. Natzaret and the entire area of the PAI del Grau, so important for us and for the future of the expansion and maritime connection of the city, and we are committed to co-financing this infrastructure. Thus, the tunnel would be one kilometer long and would cost around 250 million euros.
A few days earlier, Puente had already declared that his department was “ready to undertake” the underground works of the Serreria railway line, in Valencia, but he recalled that “it is obviously an urban project, not just a railway project” and said that an agreement had to be reached “on financing”.
In the case of the access channel, with a cost of 665 million, it is financed by the Government (50%), the Generalitat Valenciana (25%) and the Valencia City Council (25%). However, this project, in addition to urban planning, is also necessary to improve railway operations, which is why the Government assumes the majority of the work. In the case of the passage tunnel and the underground station, the central executive will finance 100% of the work.
In the case of Serreria, the government delegate, Pilar Bernabé, referred last July to the mobility law that is being drafted in Congress, “where it is very clear that there is 70% that the administration must make a local contribution, which can be done by the City Council with the Generalitat, with the Port itself, which will also be one of the agents that will participate in the benefit of these works, and the 30% that would be borne by the State.
In this regard, the municipal spokesman of the PSPV, Borja Sanjuán, lamented that “Catalá has been deceiving the Valencians for months”: “This document shows that the PP has always refused to bury the tracks of the Serrería, just as it has never done anything to bury those in the access channel. In addition, the PP left in writing that if the City Council wanted to bury the roads, it would have to pay 100% of the work. That was the PP’s proposal. “Either we do nothing, or we Valencians pay in full.”
Sanjuán recalled that “Catalá dedicated itself to accusing the socialist government of what the Popular Party was doing and now it is discovered that everything has been a theater that has nothing to do with the defense of Valencia” and stressed that “now a “The socialist government has already assured the participation of the Spanish government in the financing of the burial.
According to the socialist spokesman, “reality is what it is, and this document proves that there is only one party that has buried traces in Valencia, it is the Socialist Party, as it does in the access channel or as it will do with the central station and the transit tunnel, and that it will also do it in Serreria, precisely against what the PP wanted. Catalá should act as mayor and not as a member of the PP and, instead of creating these hypocritical conflicts, it would be more productive to work with the government that is investing in Valencia.”
