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Badalona to repair the Barca Maria beach road after storm Harry
Badalona is launching urgent works at one of the areas hardest hit by storm Harry. The service road at Barca Maria beach, badly damaged by January’s waves, will be repaired to restore access to the area and reinforce protection for the R1 line, which runs very close to the sea.
The works will cover 219 metres of road and have a budget of nearly 350,000 euros. The Departament de Territori, Habitatge i Transició Ecològica has opened the tender process for the works, with bids accepted until 6 July.
The aim is to act before the autumn storms arrive. Once the contract is awarded, the works are expected to last around three months. The urgency is due to the state of the area after a storm that damaged the promenade, affected underground installations, and left the railway environment more exposed.
The road is not just a path by the beach. It also serves as a protective barrier between the sea and the railway infrastructure. In such a sensitive stretch of coastline, any loss of stability could end up affecting access, urban services, and the safety of the R1.
The project plans to rebuild the roadbed with a 30-centimetre layer of gravel and a 20-centimetre reinforced concrete surface. A concrete wall will also be built along the seafront, and a breakwater will be installed to reduce the force of the waves during future storms.
The works will include restoring lighting, water channels, and two conduits for other services. The Llevant wastewater collector, which already had to be repaired by the Área Metropolitana de Barcelona after breaking during the storm, will also be protected.
ADIF, for its part, has built a dyke in the northern section to protect the railway and the road itself. This previous intervention allows the road repairs to proceed more safely, without having to wait for the sea to hit an already weakened area again.
Storm Harry left a deep mark on Badalona. The mayor described it as the worst ever recorded in the city’s history, with severe damage to the seafront promenade and the coastal connection towards Maresme cut off for days.
The works at Barca Maria once again highlight the fragility of the metropolitan coast. Badalona already suffered the impact of storm Gloria in 2020, when the Pont del Petroli was split in two. Now, repairing the road is about more than just fixing a damaged stretch: it’s an attempt to buy time and improve safety on a coastline increasingly exposed to harsher storms.