The APB is to build an underground car park at the Lonja Dock at the Port of Palma

The APB is to build an underground car park at the Lonja Dock at the Port of Palma

Palma

12/02/2018

The Port Authority of the Balearic Islands (APB) is to build a public underground car park, consisting of up to 460 spaces, at the Lonja dock at the Port of Palma. With this infrastructure, the APB will eliminate around 150 of the existing aboveground parking spaces and it will spruce up the area, converting it into a car-free zone with garden areas for pedestrians.

In a meeting held on 31 January, the Board of Directors of the APB approved the rule and clause specifications that are to govern the public tender for the construction and management of the car park during a maximum term of 50 years. Tenderers will have to improve on the annual usage fee amount of €156,052, without VAT.

The surface area under the tender covers the space between the head office of the APB and the concession currently held by the Pesquero restaurant at the Port of Palma. The project is to entail the creation of a car park under the phreatic level, envisage the creation of garden areas on the surface and to maintain the current access points at the dock in a similar condition as they are currently in.

The planned car park must have one level (with a capacity for around 230 vehicles), but tenderers may suggest a two-level project that could amount to a total of 460 spaces. Tenderers are to propose the number and dimensions of the parking spaces, as well as their distribution. Spaces reserved for people with reduced mobility must also be considered in the project. The investment estimated by the APB, which is to be undertaken by the future concessionaire, ranges from between 9.5 to 21.8 million euros, depending on whether one or two levels are built.

Open to the public

Two types of user will be able to access the new public car park. Pass holders –regular employees, employees of adjacent businesses, customers or port workers–, who will have access to it with rates suiting their needs and working hours. These spaces should account for 20% of the total number, according to the tender specifications. The other type of user is the general public. These spaces will be under a rotation system, with neither reservation nor preferential rights of any kind.

With the sprucing up of the area and the envisaged demolition of two obsolete buildings at Contramuelle-Mollet that do not relate to any port use, the incorporation of the port into the city is further aided, continuing the reform that the APB has already started at the Viejo Dock, which connects this area of the Port of Palma with the Antonio Maura promenade. The works are just one line of action carried out by the Port Authority in its recent activities at all of its ports. The authority also seeks to help the port integrate into the city.