Galicia is the perfect combination between modern and ancient, between classic and avant-garde. This can be seen in the skyline of their cities, which They are full of constructions of all kinds. The Cathedral of Santiago, the Tower of Hercules and the Finisterre Lighthouse have defined the identity of the community. But other more current buildings have also done so, such as the Viacambre building or the Milenium bridge in Ourense, the Rande bridge in Vigo or La Torre Hercón in A Coruña.
Municipal planning is key to the development of a place. Sometimes, this causes many projects that could have changed the silhouette of a city to fail to materialize. That is why There is an ‘imagined Galicia’, with architectural dreams that promised to redefine the planning of the territory or provide an avant-garde touch. However, They have remained on paper for various reasons: economic, political or technical, mainly.
The ‘brother’ of the Rande bridge and a metro in Vigo
The city of Vigo is always in constant modernization. Its streets have changed in the last decade to such an extent that they have been filled with escalators and elevators, as well as new buildings, such as Vialia, the new shopping center that also houses the intermodal station. However, some projects have not been able to be carried out. This is the case of a second bridge over the Vigo estuary. The Rande bridge is one of the most emblematic works in Galicia. Inaugurated in the early 1980s, it connects the olive city with the municipality of Redondela.
The idea of José Manuel Fernández Alvariño, who in 2005 was the president of the Confederation of Businessmen of Pontevedra, was to build a second bridge that, in this case, would connect Vigo with Cangas. The objective was for this new structure to facilitate traffic between the ports on both banks of the estuary. However, the project encountered some difficulties, such as its length – just over three kilometers –, its environmental impact and its cost.
Another great project that could have changed mobility in the city of Vigo was a metro network that connected the city center. In 2004, studies began the possibility of creating a light or underground metro with a total of 15 stops. The route would pass through Montero Ríos, Areal, Isaac Peral, Concello, Gran Vía, Plaza de América or Camelias, among others. Different studies were carried out over the years to see its feasibility. The Xunta proposed creating a tram, but Vigo rejected this idea and the project was stopped.
An amusement park and other projects in A Coruña
A Coruña has also been left without many large projects, which did not see the light of day due to different problems. One of them is the amusement park that It was going to be installed on the mountain of Santa Margarita. The people of A Coruña could have enjoyed roller coasters, a planetarium and a 100-meter tower with a revolving restaurant, which was going to be inaugurated in the 1970s. However, the idea was scrapped and it was decided to open the current Casa de the Sciences.
There were many other works in the city that never made it past paper. One of them was the remodeling of the Riazor stadium. The former president of Deportivo, Augusto César Lendoiro, had one ambition: to give the team and the fans a football field of another level. To do this, New Yorker Peter Eisenman designed a stadium with a capacity for 36,000 people and with facilities that included a hotel, restaurants and parking with 3,600 places.
Furthermore, A Coruña would be much better connected to Ferrol thanks to a bridge, which was never built. The School of Civil, Canal and Port Engineers proposed at the beginning of the 21st century to create three bridges that would allow a direct route between the estuary of A Coruña, Ares and Ferrol. However, this idea was never even formally proposed, which was named ‘Era 2000 Bridge’ and would reduce the distances between both cities.
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