Despite the fact that the world was already in a severe crisis, UPN Mayor Yolanda Barcina was not engaged in destroying and built an air passage for pedestrians 73 meters long and 3.5 meters wide to connect Jito Alai with the Half Moon walk above ten meters. It spent EUR 680,000 on infrastructure. And the current mayor, Enrique Maya, was the urban councilman of the then UPN.

It must be borne in mind that the road is under the catwalk and that it can pass through it to the other side, yes, it must cross it. Therefore, it was not essential either, but a catwalk could be made ten times cheaper, as in many parts of the city, which cross the northern road of Pamplona. But no, as usual, UPN had to do something big, even more if the catwalk was the main road for the San Fermin Museum. But the crisis and the change of government of 2015 broke the museum project. UPN built a bridge, but in addition to joining the walls, the infrastructure gave way to a nightmare. However, the beginning was glorious in 2012, in the VIII of Ibero-America. The Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism also awarded him a prize.

The fact is that in 2016 he was already mayor of EH Bildu, Joseba Asiron, and after the fall of several pieces of iron, the step was closed because several reports announced the risk of fall. The current mayor, Enrique Maya (UPN), faced Asuncion harshly, removing the reliability of the reports, and used the walkway as a weapon in the municipal election campaign of 2019, announcing the immediate opening of the passage in case of being again mayor. He was mayor, but did not open the walkway on the recommendation of municipal technicians and other companies. The mayor himself is also a professional architect.

"The catwalk must be dismantled"

From the observations made, four technical reports have been extracted, one of which, developed by the Madrid company IDEAM in 2019, recommended the removal of the catwalk, as exhibited by the then mayor Joseba Asiron in social networks. This was stated in the report: “The walkway has serious design and implementation defects and 100% of its structural components have serious problems. There is no drainage of rainwater and welds and screw groups are scarce. The structure already has a high degree of corrosion and its foundations are not effective to support lateral earth pressures.”

Seven years have passed, therefore, since the step was closed, and as the solution advances, new problems have been encountered, as explained by the city council this Wednesday in the press release: “In the welds there were deficiencies, even in the exterior beams, and in the blocks and nerves of the building. General shortcomings in the rest of the structure. The base of the Jito Alai fronton walkway has also had to be strengthened and work has been carried out to remove the walkway from the storm water drainage infrastructure of one part of the structure. Therefore, to reinforce the whole step, 40% of the 125 tons of steel with infrastructure has been replaced and the number of welds for better structural fixation has been increased by 30%".

Mayor visits the bridge on Wednesday

This Wednesday the pedestrian bridge has been opened, with the change and presence of other UPN councilors, as pointed out in the municipal press release “visiting the works”, but it is basically an ordinary opening act of the pre-election, as denounced by the other opposition groups, EH Bildu, PSN and Geroa Bai. Maya has expressed dissatisfaction about the walkway, but is pleased that “in the end citizens will be able to use it again”.

Construction of the infrastructure cost EUR 680,000 in 2010 and now repair EUR 807,214 (the repair budget was EUR 593,000). The gateway has therefore cost almost EUR 1.5 million.

The catwalk was built by Arian and Teusa companies and was directed by Boreas Nuevos Tecnología, Oscar Pérez, Carlos Pereda and Ignacio Olite. The City Council reports that it is the fault of these companies and these people of the poor construction of the infrastructure, so all the renovation costs that have occurred must be borne by them. Mr Mayor said that the City Council’s legal team was working on this task.

It should be thought, however, that once the infrastructure was built it would be inspected by someone, as is done in the simplest works, and this would be done by the city council. The City Hall has not communicated how this process was carried out, but it would be logical if it were done, and if it did not, the municipal opposition groups should refer this request to the municipal government. Talking a lot about construction works, but very little about who and how inspections of final works were carried out in 2010.