ARCHIVED - Murcia residents unhappy as 2.4 million euro Santiago Calatrava bridge guzzles money

Residents complain that the carpet installed as a solution to the slippery surface is dangerous

In the late 1990s and the early years of this millennium, Santiago Calatrava was, in some respects, the golden boy of Spanish architecture, and his designs were sought after not only in Spain but throughout the world. Blessed with a flair for creating striking structures, the Valencia-born architect designed projects in Ireland, the UK, Switzerland, Germany, the USA, Argentina, Canada, Greece, Portugal, Italy and many other locations, as well as creating the Ciutat de les Artes I les Ciencies in Valencia itself.

Recently, however, criticism and resentment at Calatrava’s spectacular but hugely expensive designs have been growing, as realization dawns that often his grandiose schemes are far from practical. Last December the beautiful opera house in Valencia had to be closed when bits of the façade fell off, in Venice there is public anger at the costs of the Constitution Bridge (11 million euros as opposed to a budget of 3.8 million), and it seems that wherever Sr Calatrava goes he leaves beautiful structures which cost taxpayers huge amounts or, in simple terms, don’t work.

In Murcia Sr Calatrava was contracted in the 1990s to design the pedestrian bridge known as the Pasarela de Vistabella (or Pasarela Jorge Manrique), which spans the River Segura and joins the areas of Vistabella on the north bank and Infante Don Juan Manuel to the south. This bridge is much used by residents on both sides of the river, particularly those crossing from the south to the market in Avenida La Fama every Thursday morning.

The first problem with the bridge was encountered during construction, completion of which was delayed by difficulties in supplying the parts needed. However the delays did not last long, and the 53-metre bridge was opened in January 1999, following which Sr Calatrava proclaimed that he had “modernized the image of Murcia”.

Before too long, though, locals started to express their dissatisfaction with the beautiful structure. Certainly it fulfilled its functions of crossing from one side of the river to the other and being beautiful, but unfortunately it was just not very good for walking on.

The surface consisted entirely of glass paving bricks, which not only break easily but also become slippery when wet, and many locals sustained injuries from falls on the hazardous surface. Older residents soon started taking a detour to the road bridge just a few hundred metres downstream.

The Town Hall was obliged to replace broken slabs, each one at a cost of 240€, as had been the case on a similar Calatrava bridge in Bilbao, and soon as much as 20,000 euros a year was being spent on maintenance.

Eventually the problem was solved by the installation of a special 16-millimetre-thick non-slip carpet along the whole length of the bridge, at an additional cost of 60,000 euros, avoiding slip-ups and ensuring that further breakages were minimized.

Now, however, neighbours are complaining again, this time because the carpet keeps rucking up and becoming wrinkled: “we no longer slip over, now we just trip”, explained one local. In addition, those crossing by bicycle find that the wheels get caught up in the wrinkles on the carpet. Certainly anyone looking at this carpet now will find it hard to believe that it was worth 60,000 euros.

The project to build the footbridge and widen the road bridge next to the Auditorio Víctor Villegas cost the Town Hall of Murcia 2.4 million euros, and although the Pasarela de Vistabella was viewed at the time of its construction as a necessity residents are now unsure who to blame for the continuing problems in using it: some point the finger at the architect, while others claim that the Town Hall should never have accepted his project in the first place, placing aesthetic considerations above usability among their criteria.

What is certain is that in Murcia, as in other cities adorned by Sr Calatrava’s designs, the architect is no longer held in the high esteem he once enjoyed, as belts tighten in the economic crisis and practicality has to take priority over maintaining money guzzling high profile projects.

So deep do feelings run in some corners, that there is even a website dedicated to denouncing his “serious negligence and incompetence” (www.calatravatelaclava.org).