The Tarragona City Council will invest this year 140,000 euros for the construction of a new footbridge that will facilitate the assemblies in the Teatre Auditori del Camp de Mart, an action that was pending since the opening of the enclosure in 1970. Annually, the Consistory spends between 40,000 and 60,000 euros in the rental of temporary structures to facilitate the loading and unloading of the trucks that carry the production material, and that enter through the back of the facility located next to the Col·legi Sant Pau. “It will be an investment that will allow us to have it fixed, and that we will pay off in three or four years”, indicates the mayor and councilor for Culture, Pau Ricomà (ERC), who last week agreed to take a tour of the cultural facilities with the Diari from the city.
According to the project, which has already been drawn up by the Territori Municipal Department, the action will involve the construction of a 15-meter-long structure, as well as the incorporation of a five-meter-high retaining wall so that access is level. From Stage. In this way, escalators will be enabled to access the lower part, which is occupied by the URV.
“It makes productions more expensive”
For half a century, the Consistory has had to rent temporary structures every season to be able to mount productions. With a conservative calculation – of 40,000 euros per year – municipal spending rises each term to about 160,000 euros, which in ten years gives a mortgage of 400,000 euros for the public coffers. “It was a historical debt, I do not understand that it had not been done before,” says Ricomà, who also highlights that the star performance of this 2021 “will be a turning point” to energize the equipment. «The opportunity cost will be very high, since now the rental of the catwalks makes our productions very expensive. There are some who do not come because it is not worth it and that in the future they will want to do so ».
The forecast of the Plaça de la Font executive (ERC-Comuns) is that the intervention to enable the new fixed structure will begin in October. “We could start the works in two months, since we have the project done and we only need to get the performances to contract, but if we started them in spring this season we would not be able to rent the provisional catwalk and there could be no programming. That is why we will wait until after Santa Tecla », indicates Ricomà.
In this way, the «backyard» of the Camp de Mart will be ready for the 2022 season. «We will complete the enclosure and we will be able to get the most out of an outdoor space as there are very few in Catalonia. I am sure that it will give us a great tourist boost “, emphasizes the mayor of the Consistory, who regrets that” when we enter 2019 we find cultural facilities with brutal structural problems and a situation of absolute neglect, “he said in a clear reference to the management of the previous government led by the PSC of Josep Fèlix Ballesteros. In fact, the Camp de Mart Auditorium closed during the second half of 2017, when the then Culture Councilor, Josep Maria Prats –Units per Avançar–, decided to provisionally close the facility pending reports that would determine the situation. Later, after the departure of the Christian Democrat mayor as a result of the events of October 1, the enclosure reopened with the entrance to the Begoña Floria (PSC) council.
The horizon: the new tent
Another major project managed by the Department of Culture in the enclosure located at the gates of the Part Alta is the replacement of the marquee. The textile cover was installed in 1993 and, at that time, it was considered the largest in all of Europe. However, reports indicate that its useful life ends in 2023, so it is already necessary to think about the replacement of the 3,000 square meters of canvas.
«This year we will allocate 30,000 euros to develop the project. In theory, it lasts two more years according to the visual analysis that was made, but we must face its renewal from now on because although right now it does not suffer from tension problems, it does have many fungi, “says the Esquerra Republicana politician, who foresees that the intervention on the membrane can be carried out “by the end of 2022”.
Also, according to estimates made by municipal technicians, the cost of the operation could exceed 800,000 euros. “It is a unique piece, and there are very few companies that can take care of it. We hope that in the bidding process the final cost will be lower ”, emphasizes Ricomà.
40,000 euros in the budget
The municipal accounts for 2021 reserve 40,000 euros in investments for the Camp de Mart. “This amount will be expanded when we have the remainder of 2020. We will increase several items, and cultural infrastructures will be one of them,” Ricomà advances in conversation with this newspaper. Among the actions that will be carried out are also to change the lighting, “which is old” according to Ricomà, while the electrical installation will also be updated because “the current one is not efficient and consumes a lot”. The Camp de Mart celebrates its first half century with a facelift.
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