Meta Engineering, winning UTE in call for ideas to transform Barcelona’s Ronda Litoral along Besòs River

July 12th 2021

 The project submitted by the temporary joint venture (UTE) between JPAM, Meta Engineering and AZ Estudis i Projectes de Medi Ambient i de Paissatge has been chosen as the winner of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) call for ideas to transform the B-10 motorway (Ronda Literal) where it runs parallel to the Besòs River and the interchange with Gran Via (Area 2).

With their proposal titled “Una de Siete” (One of Seven), architect Jorge Perea (JPAM), civil engineer Josep Secanell (Meta Engineering) and biological scientist specialising in the environment Anna Zahonero (AZ) developed a daring proposal to transform the B-10/Gran Via interchange and surrounding spaces.

The challenge was to bring this peripheral space into the metropolitan collective domain, with greater interconnections between the B-10 and its surroundings to boost urbanity and encourage a new centrality.

The proposal also harnesses the environmental potential of the Besòs River as a huge linear metropolitan park, inspiring the selective addition of a carriageway on the metropolitan avenue that runs along it.

The project dealt with the crossings between the two sides and the intersections with the Ronda, as well as the resulting spaces in the area, as a way to rationalise and extend the urban benefits of the transformation and have a strategic impact on both sides of the river. It proposes to restructure the interchange, running the Ronda underground in a fake tunnel to achieve continuity at ground level.

This transformation, on top of pulling up the train tracks and bringing in new modes of mobility, will create five large urban elements for new programmes, joined into a campus reflecting environmental values, making this metropolitan esplanade a huge platform over the Besòs River destined to become a benchmark for large-scale events.

The call for projects falls under the Metropolitan Urban Master Plan (PDU), which aims to promote sustainable mobility, efficiently connecting the metropolitan area and prioritising the flow of people over vehicles.

As part of the road network and hierarchy the PDU proposes, the call for projects included the concept of combined road infrastructures, with the Mediterranean corridor associated with metropolitan avenues and nearby or parallel connecting roads, in order to generate synergies and properly serve the territory, improving urban quality and preserving open spaces.