PALMA
THE Balearic Port Authority has put the construction work for the new passenger terminal in the port of Alcudia out to tender.
The building is unprecedented and is being constructed to encourage passenger transport in the north of Majorca.
The building for the new passenger terminal was designed by the architects Luis and Jaime Garcia Ruiz and has a budget of 15.9 million euros.
The construction of this new passenger terminal will complete the extension and integral reform of the commercial port of Alcudia.
The Port Authority started this in October 2005 and it basically consisted of the remodelling of the western docks, which involved taking 25'000 square metres from the sea area.
It is precisely this extent of the extension which has given enough space to build a passenger terminal in the port for the first time.
The extension of the Port of Alcudia also included the construction of a new mooring dock for light ships (the popular motor launches).
The extension also took into account an historic demand by the residents, to connect the commercial port to the residential area of the Port of Alcudia via a footbridge.
In addition to this, there is one last thing to be done, this being the construction of an area for boat repairs.
This will only be possible once the council has ceded the land which is at present occupied by the dockyards which are next to the municipal building in the Port of Alcudia.
The extension of the Port of Alcudia is a project which was being talked about more than a decade ago.
The negotiations between the council and the Port Authority were very long drawn out.
The reason for this was that the town authorities were very reluctant to give the go ahead for too striking an extension, as this would be very controversial and lead to a lot of criticism.
Indeed, many people have criticised the excess amount of land which the new extension has reclaimed from the sea (25'000 square metres).
On the other hand, the supporters of the extension claim that this is a good thing as it will mean an increase in the frequencies of passenger transport ships.