The senior residence to be built on the old bus station plot, in the O Pino neighborhood of the city, is still waiting, more than two years after its urban planning problem was unstuck with the change of use of the plot through a specific modification of the General Municipal Planning Plan (PXOM).
The works, financed by the Amancio Ortega Foundation, as in the rest of Galician cities, will not begin until this summer, according to sources familiar with the project, after suffering new delays. Last year it was announced that the first stone would be laid in the first quarter of 2024, nothing could be further from reality. Several traffic jams have delayed the forecasts. In this case, the removal of the old transformer and the medium voltage line from the old station plot is behind the problems. The transformer is the only structure left standing from the old station.
During the works, more problems than expected were encountered. Already in the middle of last year, this work had to be delayedsince Naturgy’s license to remove the transformer took longer than expected.
In any case, these last obstacles are in their final stretch. In fact, the territorial headquarters of the Xunta just gave, a few weeks ago, prior administrative authorization for the construction of the new electrical installation that will be installed in place of the previous one and that will supply the future residence, which clears the deadlines to begin work this summersince this authorization expires in September, so by then the land should be completely ready and the works already underway.
The residence project is completed and delivered to the City Council for the license application, and all calculations have been made, but this inconvenience is still pending. The works, once these last problems have been solved, will be carried out by GOA Invest (Inditex construction company, with architect Elsa Urquijo, the same as the group’s store network).
The residence will have cutting-edge equipment and innovative services, such as psychogeriatric units specialized in Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative dementias, as indicated in Social Policy.
Furthermore, these centers, both the one in Ourense and those financed by the Amancio Ortega Foundation in the rest of Galicia, will be based on four principles: accessibility and humane treatmentcreation of coexistence units through architectural improvements, greater socio-health coordination and implementation of new technologies to facilitate the work of employees.
Deadlines
The most realistic deadline to inaugurate the residence, which will provide 120 new geriatric beds to the city, aims for the year 2026, taking into account that once the works begin, which will exceed 12 million euros of investment, they will take 18 months. Although the places will be public, the management will be private, since, in both Santiago and Lugo, the first ones auctioned and about to open, have been granted to the Fesan Foundation.
Santiago and Lugo, ready; the rest, underway, except Vigo
In total, seven centers will be opened in the seven Galician cities, which 900 places will increase for social and health care in the community: 150 in Vigo, 150 in A Coruña, 120 in Ourense, 120 in Lugo, 120 in Santiago de Compostela, 120 in Pontevedra and 120 in Ferrol. The centers will create more than 800 direct jobs.
Two of the residences are already finished, delivered and ready to open: Santiago and Lugo. Regarding those that remain pending, those of A Coruña, Pontevedra and Ferrol are in the full execution phase. It is expected that the one in the city of Lérez will be operational this year, the one in Ferrol in 2025 and the one in the Herculinian city in 2026. Only Vigo accompanies Ourense and remains entrenched in the previous phases. In the case of the olive city, the paralysis, which threatens to bring down the project, is limited to urban problems, as Ourense already went through at the beginning. The Xunta has been asking the local government for months to make the roads available to carry out the project.
The agreement between the Amancio Ortega Foundation and the Xunta dates back to October 2019, so Ourense has accumulated five years without the government of Gonzalo Pérez Jácome being able to move the first stone yet, in contrast to other Galician cities.
