The Department of Infrastructures in Orihuela has put out to tender the contract for the conservation of green spaces and the maintenance of trees on the Orihuela Costa, which will have an expected duration of 5 years and will involve an investment of 1,910,700 euro per year.
The deputy mayor, José Aix, and the Councillor for Infrastructures, Ángel Noguera, announced the tender as, “the most important contract of this legislature, the most necessary and with the greatest impact in our municipality. It is a contract that affects more than 2.5 million square metres and 213 green areas of Orihuela Costa. In addition, it has a significant economic impact since ten million euro are going to be invested in five years”, he said.
José Aix has indicated that the new contract will allow the town hall “to tackle the poor state of the green areas in that part of the municipality, where the service that is now being provided is deficient.” Likewise, he hoped that “in a few months the contract will be awarded and that soon we will be able to see real and beneficial changes for our municipality, taking into account that the coast is one of our tourist attractions.”
Ángel Noguera explained that the new service will cover one hundred percent of the green areas on the coast, when the previous contract only covered 40 percent. “The service will have 30 operators, when there are now 12 and the amount of the contract will go from 860,000 euro a year to 1.9 million”. In this sense, he has highlighted the magnitude of the service to be provided, since “only in Orihuela Costa there are 7,000 palm trees, many more than the total that are planted in the rest of the municipality.”
The technical bit:
The technical specifications document contemplates that the functions to be carried out by the service awardee are maintenance of trees and landscaped areas, conservation of irrigation networks, maintenance of street furniture and carrying out adjacent works. The company must be in charge of pruning trees, replacing trees when necessary due to lack of conservation or acts of vandalism, maintenance and replanting of grass areas and the annual planting of seasonal flowers and flowering shrubs. Specifically, 2,500 units of seasonal flowers and bulbs will be planted each year, as well as 3,500 shrubs in municipally owned landscaped areas. In the same way, the planting of 500 poinsettias (poinsettia flowers) is planned at Christmas. Attention should also be paid to the 13 unique trees that exist in Orihuela Costa and the palm trees located on public roads will be maintained through pruning and pest treatment, such as the red weevil, if necessary. Regarding the use of phytosanitary products, the technical prescriptions establish the preference for ecological and sustainable treatments, as well as biological control, the provision of plants that repel or attract insects. Likewise, pruning and clearing plans must take into account the fauna cycle to prevent these tasks from affecting nesting birds. the technical prescriptions establish the preference for ecological and sustainable treatments, as well as the biological fight, the provision of plants that repel or attract insects. Likewise, pruning and clearing plans must take into account the fauna cycle to prevent these tasks from affecting nesting birds. the technical prescriptions establish the preference for ecological and sustainable treatments, as well as the biological fight, the provision of plants that repel or attract insects. Likewise, pruning and clearing plans must take into account the fauna cycle to prevent these tasks from affecting nesting birds.
In relation to the maintenance of leisure equipment and urban furniture, the specifications contemplate the obligation to preserve wooden platforms, pergolas, fences, accesses, benches, tables, litter bins, bollards, etc. The winning bidder will also be in charge of the maintenance of civil works, such as curbs, tree grates, stairs…, as well as the cleaning of scuppers, nets and sandboxes, especially in the rainy season. In the same way, continuous maintenance of children’s games will be carried out by painting, cleaning, adjusting parts, repairing surfaces and disinfecting aggregates. To carry out all these tasks, the specifications contemplate that 30 people work in the service, of which one will be a technical agricultural engineer or agronomist specialising in gardening and a part-time administrative. Nevertheless, part of the staff will be subrogated from the previous contract. In addition, the company must have a fleet of vehicles made up of, among others, a truck, eight vans, a tractor and two irrigation tanks, as well as motorised cultivators, hedge trimmers or brush cutters. It must also have the precise machinery for the treatment and elimination of pruning.
In order to provide the service with the quality requirements demanded by the City Council, the winning company must establish an environmental and quality management system. In the same way, you must carry out the corresponding inventories and maps of occupation and uses in order to plan the works according to the prescriptions of the aforementioned specifications.
