Archaeological work being carried out on Calles Malaga and Caridad in Estepona has stopped because the company in charge of the work, Cospel S.A., has not yet been paid by the Town Hall. This company is responsible for paying the archaeologists checking for buried remains under the streets, and they cannot meet the cost of these salaries until they have been paid in turn by the town authorities. In fact, Cospel S.A. has not received any money from the council since it began this work at the end of last year. The full budget for this part of the work amounts to a total of 1.6 million euros.
Under current legislation, archaeological studies must be carried out when work involving the movement of earth is to be done in the historic centres of towns and cities in Spain. This means that, in the case of Calles Malaga and Caridad, all other work has to stop until the archaeologists go back to work again. The same legislation obliges them to be present at these sites while normal re-structuring work is in progress.
The result is that all work on the project must now stop until the conflict has been resolved. The Town Hall had planned to carry out the work in six phases, and it was scheduled to take almost a year to complete.
Improvements
The actual work being done includes improvements to the drainage systems, both for rainwater and human waste, and a more efficient fresh-water supply system. At the same time, taking advantage of the digging up of the streets, it is planned to install new telecommunication, telephone and electricity lines in the area, to change the paving and to install new street lights. Part of the work also involved the taking down of barriers to the free movement of the disabled in the historic centre of the town.
Finds
There is plenty of work for the archaeologists in this part of the town, with a subsoil structure similar to that of other archaeologically rich parts of the area, especially in the western end of the town centre. Many valuable pieces have been found in the streets of the central metropolitan area, ranging from objects dating from Roman times to just decades ago.
Among the most outstanding finds are ornamental metal objects such as rings, necklaces and other pieces of jewellery. A mosaic dating from Roman times was also unearthed, along with various pieces of ceramics dating from medieval times and the head of a bull, which was found during the last restoration work carried out on the Torre del Reloj.
