Council guarantees the Avingudes will stay open

The Palma city council yesterday guaranteed that three lanes in each direction in the Avingudes will be kept open during the year which the current road works are expected to last. The road works, which are causing havoc with the traffic, involve remodelling the Plaça Espanya, building an underground car park in the Calle Marques de la Fuensanta and improvements to the Stations Park. Rafel Vidal, the councillor in charge of planning, explained the situation yesterday. Originally the stretch of the Avingudes which runs through the Plaça Espanya, separating it from the Stations Park, was due to be put underground, but these plans were shelved when the company which had the contract said it could not be done without closing the Avingudes, the city's main thoroughfare, to traffic.