OFF THE CUFF: City Beautification to include sidewalks

RIPLEY’S “Believe it or not” could have used the latest announcement from the Panama Mayor’s office: The city is going to spend $90 million on the construction of sidewalks.

That’s  part of  the call for tenders for  construction projects toaling  $220 million between 2016 and 2019.

New offices in the cemetery of Concepción and sidewalks on via España up to Cinco de Mayo Plaza are part of the works to be completed in 2016, according to explanations from the Mayoral office.The detailed list of projects will be announced in December and are part of the “Action Plan” for the City.

Mayor Jose Isabel Blandon, believed to be building Brownie points for a future run  at the predidency,  said  that the plan is the result of a year of working with experts from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), concluding that mobility was one of the issues to be urgently addressed and  a key necessity is the construction of sidewalks.
“The idea is to make the city more pedestrian friendly, since the project includes lighting, tree planting and burying cables,” said Blandon.

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