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Barcelona will remove old wooden poles opposite Camp Nou
The wooden poles and electrical wiring that still survive in front of Spotify Camp Nou are numbered. Barcelona has approved a project to bury the low-voltage overhead lines on Travessera de les Corts between Comandant Benítez and Comte de Güell streets, one of the busiest stretches around the stadium.
The work is valued at around €187,000 and will make it possible to place underground an installation that currently runs on poles visible from the pavement. Once it has been buried, the supports occupying public space can be removed, eliminating infrastructure that stands in particular contrast to the transformation taking place at the stadium across the street.
The project, however, is not part of the Espai Barça works. It is an independent municipal initiative included in the Pla Endreça and in Barcelona’s programme to progressively remove overhead cables and pavement poles in all ten districts.
The intervention also has a practical purpose. The City Council considers that removing these elements improves pavement accessibility, especially for people with reduced mobility, pushchairs or users who need more passing room. Buried cabling is also less exposed to knocks, deterioration or tampering than a network installed outdoors.
The Les Corts case is only one part of a much larger plan. Barcelona intends to bury 8.8 kilometres of cabling in 56 areas across the city, with total investment of around €10.5 million and work scheduled through to 2027.
One of the most significant projects is under way in Carmel, where the redevelopment of carrer del Doctor Bové includes removing 46 poles and approximately 1.6 kilometres of overhead lines. Work has also begun in Torre Baró, in an area where this type of infrastructure remains a common part of the urban landscape.
On Travessera de les Corts, the process is at an earlier stage. The technical project was approved on 29 June and the approval was officially published in the BOPB on 9 July. There is still no confirmed public date for work to begin, nor a timetable for impacts on pavements or traffic.
For that reason, the change will not be immediate even though the project has already been given the green light. Once it is carried out, one of the last examples of overhead electrical wiring on this stretch of Les Corts will disappear, precisely as the Camp Nou surroundings undergo their own urban and mobility transformation.