Port accessAfter 22 months of work, this week saw the completion of the filling works on the left bank of the Deusto Canal, which have created an area of some 50,000 m² in the public port domain and which will be used for the urban development of the Island of Zorrotzaurre.
These works, awarded by the Port Authority of Bilbao and the result of an innovative inter-institutional agreement, have required the construction of more than 750 reinforced concrete panels to make up the 1.5 km of wall needed to contain the backfill in two separate areas of the Deusto Canal. Prior to this, wall construction had required the creation of a rock mattress foundation and reinforcement of the bottom of the estuary, which in this area was very thick with sludge, by driving in huge quantities of gravel in the form of columns until it reached the rock. In total, around 60 km of gravel columns have been built.
The most complex work has been the positioning of these walls on the North Point of the Island of Zorrotzaurre, on account of their distance from the land. This required the use of a crane with a high reach capacity. The most distant modules (those that make up the peak) were positioned some 115 m from the land.
Institutional agreement on the works required to develop Zorrotzaurre
The filling works on the left bank of the Deusto Canal, awarded by the Port Authority to the joint venture formed by Acciona Construcción and Altuna y Uría for approximately EUR 20 million, have been essential for the Zorrotzaurre development project.
This ground-breaking work and unique tender has been made possible by a complex agreement signed in January 2018 between the Ministry of Public Works, the State Ports Authority, the Port Authority of Bilbao, Bilbao City Council and the Department of the Environment, Territorial Planning and Housing of the Basque Government.
In line with the contractual procedure, the successful tenderer has been responsible for the execution of the backfilling works. For its part, the Port Authority authorised the execution of the filling works in the port public domain and will subsequently declare the land generated to be surplus. Finally, the plot of land will be formally sold and transferred by the Port Authority to the successful bidder-acquirer, who then be able to proceed with the urban development and promotion of the building product foreseen in the Integrated Development (AI-2) of the Special Urban Development Plan for the Zorrotzaurre Mixed Area, which foresees 6 residential plots, with 12 blocks of flats, assuming a percentage of ownership in the AI-2 close to 80%.
