This morning the final and official approval of the future athletics track that will house the municipality of Benissa on Avenida Madrid has been announced. It is expected that next week the Provincial Council of Alicante will finally tender the works of this new facility, which is in great demand, which will form part of the Sports City planned in the entire environment, according to the mayor of Benissa, Arturo Poquet, and the Councilor for Sports. , Adrian Cabrera.
The project has had several delays since in 2017 the Benissa City Council presented the technical report assessed by the municipal staff to the Provincial Council, which was ultimately not used. Subsequently, in 2019, the provincial entity approved the grant within the PLANIFICA plan that would give Benissa the means to carry it out.
However, the action is not definitively approved until 2020 and, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the sports project was further delayed. Now, after six months of drafting the proposal, the council hopes to see the start of the works very soon.
Initially, the execution of the track had a cost of 800.000 euros, but now, with the problems caused by the inflation that the country is facing, Cabrera has assured, the works will cost 1.700.000 euros. Always, yes, counting on the subsidy from the Provincial Council, which will pay for 80% of the budget and the other 20% will fall on the City Council.
To reduce the cost of the works, the solution that will be adopted will be to divide the execution into two phases. During the first, at a cost of 800.000 euros, the approved eight-lane ring, the perimeter fence, the adaptation of the central part and a pumptrack circuit for bicycles will be carried out.
This last area, Poquet has pointed out, has its origin in a demand by the Social Council for Children and Adolescents of Benissa.
With the completion of the first phase, whose execution period is four months, the track would already be suitable for use. On the other hand, in the second stage of the works, the changing room area, the stands and the landscape infrastructure, such as the vegetation, would be carried out. The Councilor for Sports wanted to emphasize that this second part will be planned so that it does not interfere with the sporting activity that will already be taking place on the future track.
"The commitments are to be fulfilled," declared the mayor of the town, Arturo Poquet. To which he added: "I would like to apologize for the delays, but there are issues outside the municipal machinery that we have not been able to control."
For his part, Cabrera declared: "This will be the cornerstone of the most complete Sports City in the entire Marina Alta." Although the mayor did not want to get wet with the deadlines, he did say that everything is in a very advanced phase and that they hope to see the athletes from Benisse training at the facility before the end of the year. However, "given the situation that all the administrations are experiencing with public works, I prefer to be prudent and wait to see the progress to estimate a specific date."
Variations of the presented project
Poquet and Cabrera have made a final assessment of the project presented today. Both have indicated that the approved area of the large ramp to go up to the stands may possibly be removed to install a lift that has less impact on the visual impact of the access area. This will also lower the costs of execution.
Finally, they wanted to highlight that, after meetings with the Benissa Athletics Club and the approval of the Spanish Athletics Federation, the new sports track will be approved to host federation events.
