Cinta Costera extension debate still alive
Two days after President Ricardo Martinelli presented a new plan to opponents of the extension of the Cinta Costera around Casco Viejo, it got a thumb's down from business executives.
Representatives of a coalition of groups opposing plans to encircle the city’s two World Heritage sites say they have been trying to meet with the president since August 2010, and they finally got their audience on Wednesday July 27.
The meeting included the Minister of Public Works, the director of INAC and the representative of Odebrecht in Panama. The President presented an option showing a marine overpass, starting at the Fish Market and arrive at 10th street by behind Plaza Herrera and continuing from there on landfill towards Chorrillo.The delegation said that any work of this caliber had to have UNESCO`s approval.
Patrizia Pinzon leader of a Casco Viejo community group said: “We also reminded him that UNESCO offered to bring down a group of experts to help find a solution and we suggested he take advantage of the initiative. We also said that the group of organizations that have joined to defend our patrimony would be willing to collaborate with the UNESCO team.”
Later a note summarizing the group’s position and presenting the legal bases by which the Nation is committed both locally and internationally to preserve all marine surroundings on both Casco
Viejo and Panama Viejo (Another World Heritage site was delivered to the President.Said Pinzon : “Our message is one and clear: we want to preserve Casco Viejo as a World Heritage Site. That is our fight and we will continue working towards this goal.”
On Friday, July 29, Charles Ho, director of Special Projects MOP, presented the new government proposal to the Panamanian Association of Business Executives (APEDA).
Ho said that to date the Ministry had examined 15 proposals related to the third phase of construction of the coastal strip. The latest plan would be a viaduct starting at Fish Market ) and reaching El Chorrillo along the Avenue of Poets.
The viaduct alternative was the one driving the government, because, according to the Ho-presentation it would be a viable option.
After the presentation says La Prensa members rejected the initiative. Some said that the proposal does not solve the problem of the road, which is one of the arguments for the authorities to push the development of the work.
