Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

The working sessions held on 26 and 27 September marked the beginning of RiConnect, a new European project on urban integration and mobility infrastructure financed by the ERDF as part of the URBACT and led by the AMB.

This is the first time different metropolises have promoted a European project within the URBACT network. Partners include 8 metropolitan areas, the AMB, the Area Metropolitana do Porto, Obszar Metropolitalny Gdansk-Gdynia-Sopot, Krakow Metropolis Association, Major Development Agency Thessaloniki S.A., Vervoerregio Amsterdam, Métropole du Grand Paris and Transport for Greater Manchester.

New strategies, processes, instruments and partnerships

The aim of RiConnect is to rethink mobility infrastructure and reconnect with people, neighbourhoods, cities and open spaces, increasing cohesion within the metropolitan areas and preventing territorial fragmentation.

To achieve this goal, new strategies, processes, instruments and partnerships will be developed, with priority given to public transport and active mobility, in an effort to reduce externalities and generate opportunities for urban regeneration.

The project will be carried out in two phases: the first will last 6 months and will serve to determine the project's methodology, which will be co-designed by all network metropolises. Each partner's implementation of the project will mark the beginning of the second phase, which will last two years, during which time the relevant local urban integration and mobility infrastructure project will be carried out.