End in sight for La Manga's abandoned Puerto Mayor marina as €23.5m demolition moves ahead
The long-stalled development, abandoned since 2005 after decades of planning disputes, will now be dismantled over 18 months
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO) has this Monday May 11 completed the award of the project to remove the remaining rusty structures in the Puerto Mayor marina basin and restore the Caleta del Estacio area.
Madrid-based construction company Acciona Construcción has won the contract for just over €23.5 million.
After the contract is signed, they can then start the 18-month process of dismantling Puerto Mayor, removing the sheet piles, and starting the environmental restoration of nearly one million square metres (97.72 hectares), both in the Caleta del Estacio coastal area and the submerged zone. If there are no delays, the work should be completed in 2028.
The project is not just about restoring marine and land habitats, but also about protecting the environment and making the area safe for public use.
This long administrative and legal process dates back to 1975, when the national government granted Puertomayor S.A. a concession to build a marina on the Mediterranean side of La Manga del Mar Menor. The works were never completed and the project was abandoned in 2005.
The push to recover the Caleta del Estacio and end Puerto Mayor, long campaigned for by environmental and community groups, took an important step forward in April 2021, when the Ministry formally returned the land to public ownership. The abandoned infrastructure had become, in the Government’s own words, “the symbol of an aggressive model of land exploitation in an area under severe pressure from urban development.”
What the dismantling will involve
This project is one part of a bigger government plan to restore the Mar Menor, and that overall plan has a total budget of €675.05 million.
In November, the Ministry outlined how the dismantling would take place. The works include:
- Removal of more than 2,500 metres of steel sheet piles (interlocking metal walls used to hold back land and water) both on land and at sea, along with other structures in the coastal public area such as advertising signs, fencing, and rubble.
- Removal of fill material behind the sheet piles (around 98,300 m³ of gravel, large stones and sand), as well as contaminated soil containing heavy metals in three identified areas (about 44,700 m³). All of this material will be removed and processed by licensed waste management companies.
-Repositioning of recovered sand to reshape the coastline in affected areas.
- Removal of material inside the inner basin of the eastern breakwater (around 35,264 m³ of fill), which will be transported by sea, along with any abandoned boats in the area.
-Dismantling of the final 200 metres of the southern breakwater.
-Reinforcement and refurbishment of the remaining section of the breakwater, including removal of 46,055.69 m³ of stone, use of 8,884.68 tonnes of large filter rock (120–240 kg), and reuse of 11,446.51 m³ of selected rock as reinforcement.
-Upgrading of the breakwater next to the access road (removal of debris, repositioning of rock armour, and reinforcement using reused material from the site).
-Dune restoration at Caleta del Estacio following the Coastal Dune Restoration Manual from MITECO, including protection of native species, removal of invasive plants, reshaping dunes, installing sand traps (wicker structures), and replanting native plants.
- Installation of wooden walkways over existing paths to allow beach access and pedestrian movement, plus fencing to separate the dunes from nearby developed areas and restrict access.
-Experimental planting of Posidonia oceanica seagrass in a 25 m² area after marine works are completed. The plants will be grown from seed and kept in nursery conditions for at least four months. Planting density will be 10-30 plants per m², anchored to the seabed using different techniques.
Image: MITECO
