The Vélez-Málaga City Council is considering reformulating the protection wall project for the Tecnoalimentario Park, which has yet to be executed seven years later. The municipal investment increases from 400,000 to 600,000 euros, and coordination with the Junta de Andalucía is sought to also protect the El Trapiche aeroclub.
The Vélez-Málaga City Council, governed by PP and GIPMTM, is working on a new version of the flood protection wall for the Tecnoalimentario Park in Axarquía, an infrastructure pending for at least seven years. The planned municipal investment now amounts to 600,000 euros, compared to the initial 400,000, after the first tender was left vacant.
The Councillor for Urbanism, Celestino Rivas (PP), explains that the original project was halted because no company accepted to execute it due to the starting budget. "It had been left vacant. The budget was much higher than what had been put out to tender," says the councillor, who adds that, after the resignation of the first contractor, the City Council contacted the next classified companies without success. This information is reported by Diario Sur.
With the municipal budgets for 2024, the City Council incorporated 200,000 additional euros to reach the current 600,000 and began drafting a new project. The DANA of November 2024 and the subsequent rains led the local government to reconsider the scope of the intervention and study a larger intervention in the riverbed.
The aim is for the wall not only to unblock the urban situation of the park's plots but also to protect the El Trapiche aeroclub, located next to the Vélez and Benamargosa rivers. According to Rivas, during the DANA the park did not flood, while around half a metre of water accumulated at the aeroclub. "We believe it is better to invest the money in that area and, together with the Junta de Andalucía, build a wall in the river," he states.
The Junta de Andalucía has already carried out dredging in the river, according to the councillor, and the City Council is maintaining contacts with the regional administration to combine the 600,000 municipal euros with the necessary funding for a higher wall that covers both areas. Rivas admits that the changes resulting from the recent regional elections, with the replacement of delegates and officials, have slowed down decisions.
Meanwhile, the park's business owners are demanding a solution. The spokesperson for Vox in the City Council, Javier Herreros, denounced this Thursday that the delay generates legal insecurity and difficulties in formalising warehouses, obtaining first occupancy licenses, and launching new activities. Herreros demanded that the mayor, Jesús Lupiáñez (PP), promote the project "immediately" and reminded that it already had a budget allocation in the 2026 budgets. "We are already facing the third quarter of 2026 and we still have no knowledge that this project is being executed," he stated in comments released by his group.
The Tecnoalimentario Park, next to the El Trapiche aerodrome, was included in the risk and flood hazard maps of the Junta after its construction. In 2019, the City Council announced an investment of nearly half a million euros for a wall of almost a kilometre, and in November 2020, it tendered an infrastructure of 767 metres and 80 centimetres above the complex's level, with a budget of 394,706 euros and an execution period of three months once awarded. Since then, the project has faced administrative delays and contracting issues.
The City Council hopes to reach an agreement with the Junta to execute a joint wall that protects both the park and the aeroclub. The affected business owners are still waiting for the urban situation of their warehouses to be resolved.
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