Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

Preliminary work gets under way on Tuesday, 28 May, to guarantee mobility in the area while the work is in progress. This will be the initial step before the work begins properly in the middle of June, bringing the start of the major transformation of the city’s most iconic avenue.

Members of the public will be able to see some minor preparations in La Rambla from Tuesday, getting provisional mobility arrangements ready in the avenue ahead of the first few months or works. Specifically, various provisions crossings for vehicles will be set up in La Rambla to allow local residents to get into and out of the Gòtic neighbourhood and to ensure that emergency vehicles and urban goods distribution vehicles (DUM) can circulate. These will be located at Portaferrissa-Carme, Pla de l’Ós, Ferran, Colom (access via Plaça Reial) and Escudellers. As required, the paving in the central section of the avenue will be demolished at these points and different paving laid to distinguish the spaces for pedestrians and vehicles.

Vehicles will thus be able to use these spaces to get out of the Gòtic neighbourhood and drive up La Rambla in the direction of Pl. Catalunya (heading towards the mountains), using what is currently the downhill lane. Traffic will not be able to circulate in the direction of the sea for the duration of the work, meaning changes in the routes of the V13 and 59 services, plus the N9 night bus. Line 59  will continue to head up La Rambla during the work but will use Via Laietana in the descending direction. In contrast the V13 and N9 service will start and end its route in Pl. Catalunya.

First stage: road surface and pavement in the Gòtic neighbourhood

The first stage of the work gets under way in the middle of June and will affect the pavement and the road surface in the Gòtic neighbourhood, with vehicles unable to circulate here. However, the work here will be carried out in sections of roughly 50 metres at a time. This way, the work should not interfere with access to homes, parking and shops, the circulation of emergency vehicles, urban goods distribution or the metro.

The first sections to be affected in the middle of June will be between Pl. Catalunya and C/ Santa Anna, and between C/ Boqueria and C/ Colom.

Three stages of work in 2027 with a big information campaign

This first stage of work on the road surface and pavement in the Gòtic neighbourhood will take around ten months. The second stage then follows, with work moving onto the Raval side of the avenue, where work should also take ten months. Once work on both sides is completed, the third stage will focus on the central section and take another twelve months.

During the work, the City Council will be providing as much information as possible for members of the public. The first information session for local residents and shopkeepers in the area was held on Monday. A large team of information staff will also be out and about in La Rambla and the surrounding streets this week, explaining the first disruptions caused by the work to a thousand business establishments in the Raval and Gòtic neighbourhoods.

The Espai Rambla will be operating as from 15 June, offering a permanent support point in the ground floor of the Palau de la Virreina, where people can make enquiries about the work and find full details in a permanent exhibition.

The new Rambla will be a greener, friendlier, more practical, spacious and cultural space, with more room for pedestrians in 2027. Space for traffic will be reduced, with more given over to pedestrians, who will take centre stage in the new Rambla. The avenue will also get three large spaces at three of the most singular junctions: Betlem-Moja, Pla de la Boqueria and Pla del Teatre. The first glimpse of the new Rambla will come at the sections where work is currently under way, between Colom and Santa Madrona, to be completed this summer.