The Minister of Justice, Local Administration, and Public Function, José Antonio Nieto, visited the ongoing construction works at Building B of the Justice City in Seville, along with the judicial authorities of the capital. These works will last three months and will accommodate the 25 First Instance Courts of the capital, where approximately 380 professionals work, equivalent to «the entire judicial district of Jerez de la Frontera or Marbella.» During the visit, Nieto announced that the drafting of the Basic and Execution Project for the adaptation of the already constructed five blocks has also been awarded, with the intervention starting at Building C, where all the courtrooms of the complex will be grouped.
Nieto toured the facilities of Building B with the Chief Judge, Reyes Vila; the Provincial Chief Prosecutor, Luis Fernández Arévalo; and the coordinating secretary, Felisa Panadero. He informed that the adaptation of this building, awarded to ACSA, has a budget of 1.7 million euros. Additionally, the size of the offices and soundproofing will be improved in Building B, addressing the demands of the professionals and the experience from Building A, where they will also be expanded and soundproofed when the renovation of the rest of the complex begins.
Therefore, there will be 18 offices per floor in this building. Similar to Building A, the courtrooms will be located on the ground floor, although Nieto explained that in both buildings, the space currently allocated for them will be available for common services and different bodies when all the courtrooms of the complex are grouped in Building C, which will be the next to be enabled. «This will provide greater privacy and security to legal operators working in the rest,» he emphasized.
The Minister detailed that while the construction of this building has been awarded, the drafting of the Basic and Execution Project for the other five blocks has also been jointly commissioned to expedite the work, along with the Safety and Health Study and the technical direction of the works. The drafting of this project has been awarded for 1,405,899 euros (VAT included) to the UTE formed by Vidal and Asociados Estudio de Arquitectura SLP and Argenia Ingeniería y Arquitectura SL. The deadline is eight months, after which the construction will be tendered, with a 20-month execution period starting with Building C. It is noteworthy that one of the architecture studios in the winning UTE is that of Luis Vidal, one of the creators of the design of the Palmas Altas complex built for Abengoa.
The new construction will be done in phases
Nieto explained that with the new structure of instance courts and Judicial Office implied by the Law on the Efficiency of the Public Service of Justice, which allows for significant space gains in judicial headquarters by changing the organizational structure, the new construction building «is less urgent but not less necessary.» Therefore, the Ministry will soon tender the drafting of the preliminary project for this.
Its construction «will be done in phases, starting with the space allocated to the courts for Minors, Gender Violence, and the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences,» detailed during the visit, where he was accompanied by the General Secretary of Judicial Infrastructure, Teresa Ávila; the Director-General of Planning, Modernization, and Fund Management, Carmen Navarro; and the territorial delegate of Justice, Javier Millán.
The Minister emphasized that when completed, the Justice City of Seville will be «one of the best in Spain and the second largest,» at least until the one in Madrid is built. It will organize and improve the conditions of «thousands of civil servants, judges, prosecutors, legal clerks, lawyers, and solicitors who currently work in scattered locations.»
In this regard, Nieto acknowledged that Seville was «one of the worst-treated provinces» in terms of judicial matters. Therefore, the Infrastructure Plan for Justice 2023-2030 envisages new headquarters in 10 of the 15 judicial districts of the province, some already underway like the Justice City in the capital or the new buildings in Lebrija or Marchena executed in the previous term. Of the remaining five, the headquarters of four (Carmona, Écija, Sanlúcar la Mayor, and Coria del Río) will be expanded, and only Morón de la Frontera’s will not increase in size, although energy efficiency works will be carried out.