There is actually a digger in the pit; i.e., the hole left by the absent municipal market in Almuñécar - it seems work has finally begun.

Now, when you take into account that the contract to build the market was awarded on the last day of 2021, this progress can hardly be termed as hasty.

The company, CHM – Obras e Infraestructura, had 14 months to complete the building but they promised that they could do it in twelve. However, here we are in October, ten months into the year, so the original deadline is looking a little shaky, to say the least.

Accompanying the digger driver, who really didn’t need the company was the Mayor, Juan José Ruiz Joya, the Councillor for Urban Development, Javier Garcia, and one of the Vice Mayors, Beatriz González. Also there was a company bigwig for UTE Mercado Almuñécar, Nico Alexander Heinz and representatives of CHM – Obras e Infraestructuras.

So, one worker in a digger actually doing the work, and five people watching – sounds about right!

The build has a budget of 5,235,469 euros and five Coca-Cola lids, and a completion date of twelve month, which means that the clock has been set back to zero, bless them. However, this new arrangement does mean that work will take place during the summer just when people will need that parking area, but never mind.

The good thing is, of course, that the underground parking involved will have space for 200 vehicles – the crater had space for almost that without the expense, but that patch of land couldn’t stay as a crater for the rest of time.

The demolition of the old market was sneakily carried out whilst we were all locked in our homes back in 2020 – Mayor Herrera didn’t want the kind of protests that Benavides had when he demolished the old paseo – there’s nothing like a pandemic to sidestep street protests and angry people standing in front of bulldozers to prevent them from working.

So, nothing much had happened since spring 2020 other than clearing away the rubble but now, we have a digger banging around at the bottom of the hole to a resounding round of applause from those that had come to be photographed and watch somebody else working.

Let us just hope that it doesn’t turn into another never-ending-story like the Plaza de Abderramán II or the Plaza de Santa Cruz.

Anyway, here’s an article from December the 31st, 2021 on the subject

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia – photo JM de Haro)