The Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Rosana Navarro, has closed the 4th Road Conservation Malaga Congress.
The Malaga City Hall Councillor for Town Planning and Public Works has hosted this morning on the fourth day of the Conservation Congress, entitled "Smart city urban sustainable conservation". Divided into four debate tables and two conferences with conservation and Sustainability experts of national and international circuits.
The opening ceremony was presided over by Francisco J. Pomares, Housing and Land Management Malaga City Hall Delegate, who has stated the fact that citizens are increasingly becoming more demanding and require better results: "What is important is that the citizens feel calm when there is a problem". Also participated in the presentation, Eduardo Fernandez CEO of Eiffage Infraestructuras, and the general director of Infrastructures Conservation and Maintenance of Sando, Jorge Gamiz, who has placed emphasis on the need to act quickly on any incidents, such as the floods in Malaga in December and February.
Jesus Cañadas, head of the Office for the Promotion of the Information Society, the Ministry of Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda who gave the opening address at the inaugural conference, has valued the benefits that smart cities will have in the future, which will allow to use all the available information at the same time: "The idea of a smartcity is to anticipate the problem".
The first debate table, coordinated by José Cardador Town Planning Director of Malaga, has discussed the present and future of Urban conservation: innovation and efficiency. Francisco Martin, head of Conservation and Road Maintenance, explained how the new management system that UTE Eiffage-Conacon applies in Malaga, allows to obtain real-time information on the conservation of a city. In this sense, Sergio Muñoz, technician of the Road Conservation Section of Malaga, has highlighted the value of the latest innovations that have been implemented, such as geolocation.
In the second debate session, on urban pavements, Javier Pérez de la Fuente, head of the Department of Architecture and Infrastructure of the Municipality of Malaga, has emphasized that "paving must be durable, versatile and of low cost maintenance." About this idea, Jean Claude Perez, IBEF (International Bitumen Emulsion Federation) President has revealed that in the next twenty years the new vehicles will modify the paving and conservation needs.
In that regard, Assistant Director General of the Department of Infrastructure and Housing Development of the Junta de Andalucía Susana Benavides, added that criteria for tenders will also be modified: “Twenty years ago social measures were not evaluated nor I+D+i valued".
Patrimonial responsibility and no conservation consequences were the focus of the third debate, in which, the Secretary General of the Malaga City Hall Venancio Gutierrez, has made a legislation compendium in this regard, it was nuanced by the Head of Highways of the Provincial Government of Málaga Service Manuel Piniella, with rulings examples to the administration.
The Infrastructure City Council of Marbella Councilor Blanca Fernandez has closed the debate by commenting that municipalities are not called to act as universal insurers: “Since we started the road maintenance contract the number of incidents and therefore of claims has fallen."
The last of the debates, moderated by journalist Luis Carlos Ramirez, addressed the interaction between conservation and the user. Assistant Director General of Road Operation of the Generalitat of Catalonia Albert Gomez, has announced a pioneering semi hot-mix project that will allow all actors involved in the creation and completion of an infrastructure to participate from the beginning: "We will favour technical offer over the economic".
About this project, Executive Chairman of the Spanish Manufacturers of Asphalt Mixes Association Juan José Potti, has criticized the role of the auctions in public tenders, "because they relegate the technical aspect to second place". The journalist, Carlos García Hirschfeld, who was not able to attend the debate, logged to the same and during his speech he emphasized the social value of this type of initiatives.
Finally, the Ministry of Promotion Deputy Minister, Rosana Navarro, closed the Congress with a conference on future Government policies, stressing the value of research in sustainable and intelligent cities efficiency and the need to invest in heritage conservation: "Fortunately we have the first European highway and motorways network".
The event was sponsored by EIFFAGE Infraestructuras And Conacon with the collaboration of, Ceacop Asefma, ACP, ACEX associations and the professional colleges; Roads, Channels and Ports Engineers; Public Works Technical Engineers and Civil Engineers; Industrial Engineers, Architects, Experts and Industrial Technical Engineers, and Surveyors and Technical Architects.
Starting next week all the conferences of the Congress, that were streamed, will be available on the web www.itafec.com.
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