- Repair works to the Orihuela City Council headquarters, in the Palace of the Marqués de Arneva, will be put out to tender at a cost of one million euros.
- Many rooms inside the historic building are said to have been uninhabitable since the DANA storms of 2019.
The storms caused a massive amount of damage that, a year and a half later, is still evident in many facilities and buildings, one of which is the Palace of the Marqués de Arneva, current headquarters of the Orihuela City Council.
The intense rains flooded the basement and the water washed through many of the rooms, including the Oriol room where the emblematic insignia is kept (which had to be moved to another area).
The damage caused by the water was such that many parts of this historic building have been out of use since the cold drop. However, steps are now being taken to resolve the situation, as the Council has put out to tender the refurbishment of the Marqués de Arneva Palace for an amount that is just under one million euros.
50% of the project is being financed by central government, through a grant received from the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Function, of 499,697 euros. The investment will make it possible to repair the damage to the building, but it will also be used to modernise some of the municipal services, including the erection of an emergency staircase, which the building lacks, and a second elevator, which will require authorisation from the Ministry of Culture.
The floods caused significant damage to the structure of the 18th century building and showed there to be constant leaks throughout the building. It will be these two aspects on which the reform of the property, that has housed the headquarters of the Orihuela City Council since 1973, will focus.
Other important aspects will include the roof, where leaks have appeared due to the damage caused by the flood, and the basement of the building, which is damp, and in a general unsanitary condition.
The work has a completion period of 12 months from the signing of the contract, which will be put out to tender in the next three weeks.
The Palacio del Marqués de Arneva is an 18th century building, which underwent internal remodelling to adapt it to its new function as Town Hall in 1973. Major works were last carried out in the building in 1991, when it was partially restored.
The Orihuela Council has also put out to tender the works for the repair of roads that were affected by the DANA in September 2019. The contract amounts to 1,485,797 euros, of which 50% is subsidised by the Ministry of Territorial Policy.
The works will concentrate on roads in the urban area, the Coast and the districts, especially in the Montepinar urbanisation where the allocation extends to more than 380,000 euros.
Many municipal roads and rural roads were badly affected and were unusable after the cold drop due to potholes and a lack of drainage. The execution period is six months.
