The Estepona Town Hall has completed the project of Comprehensive remodeling and pedestrianization of Avenida de Españaconverting this central road (formerly N340) into a large landscaped pedestrian boulevard that opens the city to the sea and creates a promenade that extends along one kilometer of urban coastline.
Specifically, this work extends between the areas between the Juan Carlos I avenue and Delfín street, as well as its extension from Delfín street to the Estepona lighthouse. These two phases join the previous one executed between Terraza street and Juan Carlos I avenue.
The mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano, explained that this pioneering initiative “places Estepona at the forefront of sustainable citieswho are committed to quality of life, the well-being of citizens, the environment and wide spaces for pedestrians”.
In this way, Estepona unites its urban center and the heart of its economic and social activity with the tourist attraction that the sea brings, with the consequent revitalization of this entire strategic enclave of the municipality. Thus, the aforementioned avenue becomes a place of transition between the city and the sea, with “a more pleasant, quiet, safe space, open to pedestrians and where nature predominates; in short, one of the favorite places to enjoy the city“, he has assessed.
It also achieves a concept of a modern city open to the sea, which has another fundamental axis in the remodeled urban center of the city. In this sense, it must be remembered that in this area, during the last decade, a network of more than 130 streets renovated in the entirety of its infrastructures and beautified, creating the powerful focus of urban revitalization that has led to the municipal initiative ‘Estepona, Jardín de la Costa del Sol’.
The councilor has highlighted that with this new strategic project, “Estepona continues to move towards a modern citydynamic, attractive and that generates employment and wealth”; also placing itself “at the forefront” of sustainable urban planning and abounding in the city model promoted over the last decade, which has proven to be “successful, empathetic and acceptance by the citizens.
The project has also included the remodeling of the promenade that runs through these sections; as well as replacement of the sanitation networks, which have been improved with a new sewage and rainwater collector in accordance with the city’s Sewer Master Plan, new supply networksnatural gas, public lighting and irrigation, which have also been reformed.
This action has included the demolition of the existing surface to create a wide pedestrian boulevard lined with flower boxesAlthough the sidewalk is mainly intended for pedestrian use, it also has markings for a bike lane that provides continuity from the Port area to the La Cala area and will also allow wheeled traffic for emergency vehicles. In the design of the pavement, special emphasis is placed on the elimination of architectural barriers to favor an inclusive city.
This great pedestrian boulevard culminates in the Mirador del Carmen; a sociocultural facility for public use that houses a large vertical library and study spaces, a music conservatory, an auditorium for cultural events, a relevant exhibition room, which opens with fifty pieces from the Carmen Thyssen collection, and a lookout tower from which to enjoy views of the Mediterranean and the marine essence of the city.