The Barcelona City Council has awarded the new maintenance and repair contract for traffic lights and traffic regulation systems for the period 2026-2028, with an estimated value of €34.3 million.
The Barcelona City Council has awarded the new contract for the maintenance and repair of the city's traffic regulation facilities and systems, with an estimated value of €34,356,281.60 (excluding VAT) and a duration of two years, extendable for another two. The agreement was approved this Friday by the Commission for Ecology, Urban Planning, Mobility and Housing.
The contract covers the preventive and corrective maintenance of the 39,772 traffic lights distributed across 1,805 intersections in the city, as well as other elements such as information panels, access control bollards, and traffic cameras. Specifically, it includes 1,610 crossings with traffic lights for visually impaired people (13,572 units), 1,660 centralised crossings, 1,121 uninterruptible power supply systems (UPS), 18,257 supports, 737 measurement points, 67 access control bollards, 139 cameras, and 47 information panels.
The new contract represents a budget increase of €2,550,689.99 (excluding VAT) annually compared to the previous contract. The tender has been structured into two lots, corresponding to the Besòs and Llobregat areas, with the aim of ensuring more efficient coverage throughout the city.
The service must ensure the full functionality of all systems and guarantee their maximum availability, adapting the necessary resources at all times. Among the new features, the update of the inventory, the replacement of obsolete or damaged material, and the incorporation of maintenance for 81 new anti-terrorist bollards are included.
To expedite repairs, the specifications require the maintainer to have a minimum stock of spare parts for all installed materials. Preventive maintenance will be carried out during daytime hours on weekdays, while corrective maintenance (repair of faults) will be operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. A priority order is established: first, incidents affecting safety, and secondly, those that disrupt the flow or capacity of the roads.
These actions are part of the Pla Endreça, the municipal plan for the maintenance and renewal of public space. In 2026, scheduled actions are planned at 453 signalised crossings, with the incorporation of fibre optics in many cases to improve remote management. The goal is to modernise a total of 952 signalised crossings between 2025 and 2027, addressing electrical regulation, wiring, communication systems, and the implementation of traffic lights for people with visual disabilities.
The City Council highlights that these measures aim to place each territory and neighbourhood at the centre of municipal action and continue improving the quality of public space for citizens. Under the Integrated Maintenance Plan (PMI), more than 3,000 maintenance, renewal, and transformation actions will have been executed.
The residents of Barcelona will notice an improvement in the reliability of traffic lights and a quicker response to faults, especially in the Besòs and Llobregat areas, where the contract lots will be concentrated. Additionally, the progressive renewal of crossings with fibre optics will allow for more efficient real-time traffic management.
The new contract will come into effect once formalised, presumably in the coming weeks, and will extend until 2028 if the extensions are executed. The City Council expects that the first preventive maintenance actions will begin immediately to ensure the operability of the systems during the summer season, when traffic in the city usually increases due to tourist influx.
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