The future challenge of the city of Badalona is to fulfil its metropolitan vocation by reinforcing its elements of centrality. The tunnel of the B-500 road will establish the city as a communication node between the northern zone of Barcelona, the Baix Maresme and the Vallès Oriental, in addition to reinforcing the whole sub-county of the Barcelonès Nord, from Sant Adrià and Santa Coloma to Montgat and Tiana.

Restoring the connection with the Vallès.

Badalona has traditionally held very close ties with the Vallès Oriental and the Baix Maresme, but it is now time to create the long overdue communication infrastructures to link these counties in order to preserve and reinforce the commercial, cultural and social exchanges between their citizens and to provide Badalona with a new centrality in the network of metropolitan cities.

Area of Construction of the B-500 Tunnel

The scheme for remodelling the Carretera de la Conrería, the B-500 road connecting Badalona to Mollet, will represent a great improvement in the communication of Badalona with the Vallès, and will foster the interrelation of two territories and economic fabrics that have traditionally complemented each other. The new layout must provide for goods transport between the interior of the Vallès county and the Barcelonès Nord. The current layout cannot be used for commercial traffic and is marginally acceptable for personal journeys, even though a recent study states that every day 13,000 vehicles travel from Badalona to the Vallès.

The current scheme has eliminated the shortcomings of the scheme presented in 2003, and provides for the construction of a far longer tunnel (three kilometres) at a lower level, with two lanes in the priority direction. The possibility that it will begin at the torrent of Montalegre and have a direct connection from the B-20 and the C-31 is under consideration.

The Regional Policy Department of the Generalitat of Catalonia estimates that the cost of the Conrería Tunnel will be 275 million euros, which is far higher than the initial budget of 50 million euros. The construction could be financed through a “shadow toll”, which involves funding by private initiative in exchange for the payment of fees by the government according to the traffic recorded on the road during its period of concession (30 years).

This scheme could be complemented, as is requested by groups that are more in favour of public transport, with a railway ring linking the two areas that will be connected by the B-500. The new railway line would run from Barcelona (Sant Andreu Comtal) to Badalona, Mollet, Granollers and Mataró.

Looking back towards the Maresme

Badalona, together with Mataró, has acted as a pole and a driving force of the Baix Maresme. The coastal range, the railway lines beside the sea that have become a regional metro, and the double incision of the C-31 and the N-II roads have shaped a residential and business corridor that has the features of a linear city. However, it lacks coherence in the urban actions, an overall meaning and an awareness of the advantages and synergies that would be achieved through jointly coordinated development policies to promote the comparative advantages of the whole corridor.

In 2004 this area, which we can call the Eastern Corridor had a population of 458,430 inhabitants on an area of 130 square kilometres, which represents a very high density of 3,518 inhabitants per square kilometre.

The main comparative advantages of the corridor are the quality of the landscape and the climate at the foot of the coastal range, the general quality of its dwellings, and the tourist potential of its marinas. Other advantages are the newly created port of Badalona, opportunities for incentive tourism and business tourism offered by the archaeological heritage and the Badalona Convention Centre, the attraction of large shopping zones in urban areas and out-of-town shopping centres, and the maintenance of a considerable industrial fabric.

The main shortcomings that must be faced are the delay in the promotion of tertiary activities and advanced services and the transformation of production towards activities of greater added value, the level of training of the more disadvantaged population segments, the insufficient communications, the lack of a network of protective green spaces, the delay in the construction of hotels, particularly in Badalona, and the absence of a political consensus and an overall planning instrument for the whole territory.