Sea Gateways – La Marina
The main objective of the Sea Gateways projects is to improve accessibility and connection to the sea on foot and by bicycle, to create spaces for sea-city interrelation through the main vertebral thoroughfares and secondary transversal corridors capable of linking the spaces of the city with the spaces of the coast, and proposing, if necessary, a new arrangement of the open spaces that facilitates physical and visual access to the sea.
The urban fabric of Barcelona, from Montjuïc to Besòs, is characterised by streets that go all the way to the seafront, although there is only a continuity of road traffic, as the ring road and railway lines act as a barrier. There is a lack of transversal links (mountain-sea) that connect the city to the coast, on foot and by bike. The main theme is to give continuity and fluidity to the “vertical” routes with the “horizontal” routes of the coastal corridor, addressing above all the crossroads and the points of contact and intersection between the two routes. It is a case of making the public space for movement and relaxation as continuous and easily accessible as possible. The rationale of these projects is to physically determine and signpost the routes of public spaces, accessible on foot or by bicycle, that lead from the city to the sea and vice versa.
The main thoroughfare of the La Marina Gateway project is the Passeig de la Zona Franca. The proposal is for the avenue to become a structuring and cohesive civic corridor for the two neighbourhoods of La Marina.
In its upper section (at La Marina del Port), the esplanade is the central part of a system of parks, gardens, inner courtyards and squares that are very much used by the local residents. Heading down towards the port, this thoroughfare loses strength, takes on an interurban and more industrial character and form, and the quality and quantity of public space is progressively reduced. Therefore, the proposal is to give the avenue a unitary and quality character, consistent throughout the whole length (approximately 2 kilometres) so that there are real places to walk and relax that are attractive, comfortable, pleasant, coherent, contextualised, dynamic and sustainable. The proposal also involves adding a cycle lane, which is pending along most of the length of the avenue, so that it can have continuity with the cycle lanes of Gran Via and Carrer A. Furthermore, it will be necessary to design solutions to overcome the bottleneck for the public space provided by the junction between Passeig de la Zona Franca, the Litoral ring road and the railway viaduct.
