Alex Trelinski
A PLAN to incorporate riverside and Mediterranean landscapes has been victorious in a competition to create a park at the mouth of the Turia river in Valencia.
The winning design team in an international contest- ‘Confluir’- saw off 16 other bids to assume the €1 million drafting of the first phase of the Parc de Desembocadura project.
The big overhaul has a €35 million budget, with phase one costing €16.5 million- most of which is coming from the Valencia port authority.
The park will have an urban forest feel about it with the first tranche of work taking in the section between Astilleros bridge and Natzaret.
That area is around around 95,000 m2 out of the full project area covering 245,000 m2.
There’ll be recreational spaces, playgrounds, an amphitheatre, and a ‘flooded river beach’.
A new pedestrian bridge will be constructed over the Turia linking Natzaret and the other side of the river.
The successful bidder was the unanimous choice of the jury with Valencia mayor, Joan Ribo, describing Thursday’s announcement as a ‘joyous day’.
The ‘Confluir’ plan is about recovering ‘the original look of the Turia river’ and links the Natzaret district with the rest of the city which according to mayor Ribo, carries out an ‘urban, landscape and social’ change to that city area.
It’s expected that it will take a year for the drafting period to be completed and approved before a contractor is appointed to work on phase one of the park.
