Today, Friday the 13th of December, the City Mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Juan José Cardona, visited Parque de Santa Catalina square that shows a brand new image after the refurbishing works carried out in the first stage of urban-restructuring and improvement of this strategic place of the city.
The green areas of the Park have been enlarged; terraces, modernized; pavement, improved; and lighting, renovated with sustainable elements. Besides, it has a new underground channelling for electrical and watering at the segment between Luis Morote and Ripoche streets.
Eco-pavement
The works include the removal of the old pavement and the installation of 850 square metres of the new Ecogranic paving, a new generation ecologic and air-purifying material, in red colour that will improve the image of continuity of the pedestrian area between Parque Santa Catalina square and Luis Morote Street, hence improving accessibility.
The first stage of this project has been carried out over an area of 3.850 square metres, paying special attention to restructuring the flower beds to bring back its historic location of 1947.
In this regard, the green areas have been enlarged from 850 to 1200 square metres, with 760m2 of grass, 200m2 of season plants, 160m2 of bordering plants, and 80m2 of colour bushes. Besides, the ficus and palm-trees of this area have been healed and rejuvenated, thus achieving a brighter and clearer urban landscape.
Efficient terraces and lights
Another novelty of this new image of the Parque Santa Catalina is the adaptation of the terraces of the bars and restaurants of the area to the municipal ordinance and their location on the new pavement. In this regard, the older marquees have been removed and the furniture have been normalised so that chairs, tables and sun umbrellas have a much modern look, more welcoming for citizens and tourists, specially cruiser passengers who arrive at the city by Santa Catalina Dock.
Santa Catalina shows a new lighting which is adapted to the current regulation against light pollution to avoid inappropriate emissions of light and to reach efficient lighting levels at night. To achieve that, the older lampposts have been removed and its number has been increased with the 28 new ones.
The renewal of the channelling of electrics and watering has also changed the underground core of Parque Santa Catalina. Workers have installed 2 kilometres of underground pipelines for the low-voltage electrical grid, and 400 metres of watering.
One of the main spots of the park is the sculpture of Lolita Pluma (F. Ávila, 1998), which has been set on its original location after an integral renovation while being placed on a pedestal amidst a garden area, thus making its view much easier.
Unused urban furniture, like public telephone cabins and advertising billboards of different sizes have been removed from this area, and the benches have been relocated to improve the pedestrian areas between the flower beds. This new disposition turns Parque Santa Catalina into a park for walking and for the joy of citizens and tourists.
The second stage, after Christmas
The second stage of the project of improvement of the urban landscape of Parque Santa Catalina will start on the second fortnight of January 2014, and will include the reorganisation of the segment between Ripoche and Nicolás Estévanez streets.
The House of Tourism and Casa Fataga, motivating elements that improve the attention for visitors
The project of improvement the urban landscape and tourist services at Parque Santa Catalina square started last April with the opening of the House of Tourism, a facility with the characteristic of being the first intelligent tourist office in Spain that complies with the technologic requirements established by the National Integral Plan of Tourism for the 21st Century.
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