The Ministry of Education has awarded for 7.1 million euros (plus VAT) the construction of the school-institute of Xaló to the temporary union of company Vilor-Acsa Infraestructuras, also known as Vilor-Sorigué, “to be the most advantageous financially for the administration “. The UTE, which now has 18 months to carry out the work, was the best scored in a tender, which was launched in October 2020 and in which about twenty bids were submitted. The process started from a price of 8 million euros.
For the councilor of Education, Eugenia Mestre, it is “a great joy to see how we are taking steps towards the reality of having the school-institute built”. The councilor points out that “if everything goes well we will start the 2023-2024 academic year in the new building.” “It will be a very special moment because it is the most important claim of Xaló in the last twenty years,” added Mestre.
The initial project dates from 2007. At that time the works were announced but never started. Subsequently, the judicial investigation of the awards of public center constructions began from CIEGSA in the hands of the Generalitat at that time. This interruption has produced an extraordinary delay in the progress of the project that now, finally, is meeting the deadlines.
The one in Xaló is the first college-institute to be tendered in the province of Alicante, and the second in the entire Comunidad Valenciana, although there are more projected. The center, located on a 10,377 m² municipal plot between the Camí Instituto and Camí Cemeteri where the current school is partly located, will have 560 school places from 2-year-olds to 4th of ESO. The current school will be demolished and the gymnasium and new sports courts will be built on that land.
The institute-school of Xaló will be a center of 21 units: 1 for Infants of 2 years, 4 for Infants of 3 to 5 years, 8 of Primary and 8 of ESO, with all the necessary equipment and a dining room with its own kitchen with capacity for 360 diners in three shifts.
Avoid the installation of prefabricated classrooms
The work will be carried out in two phases: in the first phase, the new institute-school will be built in the part of the site that is not occupied, so that CEIP students will continue in their classrooms and the installation of prefabricated modules will be avoided. In the second phase, having finished the building of the institute-school and transferred the students to the new classrooms, the old CEIP will be demolished to build in its place the gymnasium and the sports courts of the new center.
The main building of the institute-school will be articulated in a U-shape in three independent volumes (ground floor plus two floors), each of which corresponds to a teaching cycle. On the ground floor there will be the Infant cycle, on the first floor the Primary cycle in one part and the ESO cycle on the other, which will also occupy the second floor of the classroom.
Patios, sports courts, gardens and school garden
The entire building will be air-conditioned and, in addition, in the Children’s area the heating installation will be carried out by means of an underfloor heating system, like in the new center in La Xara. The total useful built area of the new center exceeds 5,000 square meters, to which must be added another 7,500 square meters of courtyards, sports courts, gardens and a school garden.
With the new infrastructure, it will be prevented that ESO students from Xaló, Alcalalí and Llíber travel to IES Benissa, which is where they are now studying.
