The Turia riverbed: the motorway Valencia never built
A B1 Spanish reader on the 1957 flood in Valencia, the motorway plan that was dropped, and the garden that grew in the empty riverbed.
El cauce del Turia: la autopista que nunca se construyó
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The narrator cycles along the empty Turia riverbed in Valencia and learns its story: the flood of 14 October 1957, the Plan Sur that cut a new channel south of the city, the urban motorway drawn on the 1966 planning map, the neighbourhood movement and its slogan «El llit del Túria és nostre i el volem verd», the abandonment of the motorway at the end of the 1970s, and the garden built section by section. The text runs on contrast and result connectors.
El 14 de octubre de 1957 el Turia se desbordó y el agua entró en gran parte de la ciudad. La riada causó decenas de muertos y destruyó calles enteras del centro. Por eso las autoridades decidieron que el río no podía seguir cruzando Valencia.
La respuesta se llamó Plan Sur: en lugar de reforzar el cauce antiguo, se excavó uno nuevo por el sur de la ciudad. Las obras del desvío terminaron en diciembre de 1969, pero el agua no pasó del todo al canal nuevo hasta 1973. En consecuencia, el viejo cauce se quedó seco, y la ciudad se encontró con más de ocho kilómetros de tierra vacía justo en el centro.
Los urbanistas de la época ya sabían qué hacer con un terreno tan largo y tan céntrico. El plan urbanístico de 1966 dibujó encima una autopista urbana que iba a unir la carretera de Madrid con la costa, aunque entonces el río todavía pasaba por el centro y el cauce viejo aún llevaba agua. Los técnicos veían un eje rápido para los coches; los vecinos, en cambio, veían el último gran espacio libre que le quedaba al centro.
Durante los años setenta las asociaciones de barrio empezaron a pedir un parque. Su lema se sigue recordando en valenciano: «El llit del Túria és nostre i el volem verd», es decir, «el cauce del Turia es nuestro y lo queremos verde». La frase aparecía en pancartas, en pintadas y en las asambleas de los barrios que daban al cauce.
Ganaron los vecinos. A finales de los años setenta se abandonó el proyecto de autopista y el ayuntamiento declaró el viejo cauce zona verde. Después, el taller del arquitecto Ricardo Bofill preparó el plan del futuro jardín. Sin embargo, el parque no se abrió de golpe: se construyó por tramos, uno detrás de otro, a lo largo de muchos años.
Hoy el Jardín del Turia es uno de los parques urbanos más grandes de España y cruza la ciudad de oeste a este. Hay pistas deportivas, fuentes y caminos para correr; además, en uno de los tramos hay un Gulliver gigante tumbado en el suelo, con toboganes en la ropa, por donde los niños suben y bajan como los liliputienses del libro. Por otro lado, en el extremo este el jardín llega hasta la Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias.
Lo que más me gusta de ese paseo es que se puede leer como una línea de tiempo. Desde el mismo camino se ven puentes de piedra de hace siglos y puentes blancos muy modernos. Aunque el agua ya no está, el dibujo del río sigue ahí, y ahora la ciudad camina por dentro.
About this article
What you'll learn
Discourse connectors: por eso, en consecuencia, en cambio, sin embargo, es decir and aunque with the indicative. City vocabulary: el cauce, la riada, el tramo, el ayuntamiento, el lema.
The narrator cycles along the empty Turia riverbed in Valencia and learns its story: the flood of 14 October 1957, the Plan Sur that cut a new channel south of the city, the urban motorway drawn on the 1966 planning map, the neighbourhood movement and its slogan «El llit del Túria és nostre i el volem verd», the abandonment of the motorway at the end of the 1970s, and the garden built section by section. The text runs on contrast and result connectors.
After reading
Article learning block
Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.
Phrases for training
Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.
en lugar de reforzar el cauce antiguo
newinstead of strengthening the old riverbed
"en lugar de" names the option that was rejected. It is followed by an infinitive (en lugar de reforzar) or by a noun (en lugar de una autopista).
It is the neatest way to set the chosen option against the one that was dropped when you tell the story of a decision.
no se abrió de golpe
newthe park did not open all at once
"de golpe" means that something happens suddenly and completely, in one go. Here it is negated: the park opened in pieces rather than in one go.
A common conversational phrase in narrative. It is worth learning next to its opposite, "poco a poco" (little by little).
Lo que más me gusta de ese paseo
newwhat I like most about that walk
"lo que" turns a whole clause into the subject of the sentence, and the main verb "es" follows it: Lo que más me gusta ... es que ...
A very productive pattern for giving an opinion: lo que no entiendo, lo que me sorprende, lo que necesito.
A finales de los años setenta
newat the end of the nineteen-seventies
Spanish splits a decade or a month into three: a principios de (at the beginning of), a mediados de (in the middle of), a finales de (at the end of). In the name of a decade the numeral takes no plural -s: los años setenta, never los años setentas.
These three expressions carry any historical account, because they give an approximate date when you do not have an exact one.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
el cauce - riverbed
el cauce antiguo
the old riverbed
"El cauce" is the channel a river runs along, not the water itself. That is why "un cauce seco" (a dry riverbed) makes sense: the channel is there and the water is not. The whole article turns on that.
The key word of the text: in Valencia the channel stayed inside the city and the river was moved away.
la riada - a river flood
La riada
the flood killed dozens and destroyed whole streets
"Riada" is the sudden rise of a river that can pass within hours. The wider word is "inundación" (flooding), which also covers water from rain or from the sea.
People in Valencia call the 1957 event "la riada del 57", and the same word returns for other disasters on the Mediterranean coast, such as the one of October 2024.
el tramo - stretch, section
por tramos
section by section
"Tramo" is a part of something long: a road, a flight of stairs, a river, a park. "Por tramos" says the work was done section by section rather than all together.
The word is everywhere in a Spanish city: tramo de obras (a stretch under repair), tramo peatonal (a pedestrian stretch).
el ayuntamiento - the city council
el ayuntamiento
the city council declared the old riverbed a green zone
One word covers both the body that governs a town and the building it sits in: "voy al ayuntamiento" means I am going to the town hall. It is the ordinary word in Spain; several American countries say "la municipalidad" or "la alcaldía" instead.
You cannot read local news without it, because the ayuntamiento is what decides about streets and parks.
el lema - motto, rallying cry
Su lema
their rallying cry is still remembered
Despite the -a ending, "lema" is masculine: el lema, este lema. "El problema", "el sistema" and "el tema" behave the same way. For an advertising slogan Spanish more often says "el eslogan".
A rallying cry is often what survives of a civic movement fifty years later, exactly as in this text.
desbordarse - to burst its banks
se desbordó
the Turia burst its banks
The verb usually takes "se" when a river goes over its edge: el río se desborda. Inside it sits the word "borde" (edge). The text uses the simple past: se desbordó.
It is the exact verb for weather news, and it also works figuratively: "se desbordó la alegría" means the joy spilled over.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
"por eso" - that is why
Por eso las autoridades decidieron
that is why the authorities decided
The cause comes first (the flood), then "por eso", then the result. Unlike "sin embargo", "por eso" is usually not followed by a comma.
It is one of the commonest result connectors in everyday Spanish; "por lo tanto" and "en consecuencia" are its more formal equivalents.
"en consecuencia" - as a result
En consecuencia, el viejo cauce se quedó seco
as a result the old riverbed was left dry
"En consecuencia" also introduces a result, but it belongs to a more formal register: reports, news, official documents. When it opens a sentence it is followed by a comma.
Same meaning as "por eso", different tone. Switching register on purpose is half the work at B1.
"en cambio" - by contrast
los vecinos, en cambio, veían
the residents, by contrast, saw
"En cambio" sets two parallel things against each other: one group saw one thing, the other saw another. Inside a sentence it sits between commas, as it does here.
This is the comparison connector: two cities, two periods, two opinions. It does not say one side is wrong, only that the two differ.
"sin embargo" - however
Sin embargo, el parque no se abrió de golpe
however, the park did not open all at once
"Sin embargo" presents what the reader was not expecting after the previous sentence. At the start of a sentence it is marked off by a comma.
It means what "no obstante" means, but "no obstante" sounds more formal. Both can be replaced by "pero" if you join the two sentences into one.
"es decir" - that is to say
es decir
that is, "the bed of the Turia is ours and we want it green"
"Es decir" adds no new information: it repeats what was just said in other words. Here it renders the Valencian slogan in Spanish. It sits between commas.
It is what you reach for when you need to explain a hard word or a foreign phrase without breaking the sentence. Close relatives are "o sea" (colloquial) and "esto es" (bookish).
"aunque" + present indicative
Aunque el agua ya no está
although the water is no longer there
Here "aunque" presents a fact the writer and the reader both already know, so the verb takes the ordinary present indicative: "está".
"Aunque" joins the two ideas inside one sentence, whereas "sin embargo" normally opens a new sentence or follows a semicolon.
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