Limited capacity and regulated access points coming to Barcelona beaches

Barcelona City Council will regulate capacity on the city’s beaches that usually attract the biggest crowds from Monday, when the region is expected to move to Phase 2 of the lockdown de-escalation plan. 

During this phase, recreational bathing will be allowed in the waters, and the exercise time slots will be removed for most of the day, save for the allotted ours for the elderly and vulnerable. Those hours are 10-12 in the morning and 7-8 in the evening.

Specifically, a system of pylons and rope will be installed that will regulate access to the beaches of Barceloneta, Sant Miquel, Sant Sebastià, and Somorrostro. There will also be public workers on-site who will let people know whether the beaches can be accessed or not at any given time. 

The council will calculate the free space available and the capacity of each beach in real-time with the use of video sensors that will record the volume of people. This information will be translated into a 'traffic light' system for each beach that can be consulted on the City Council's website and will indicate whether the capacity level is low, medium, high, or very high.

Ada Colau’s local council rules out dividing the beaches into different sections for different groups of people, and will instead rely on the “co-responsibility” of beach-goers to keep their distance on the sand. The extraordinary measures of control and regulation of the capacity will come at a cost of 700,000 euros to the town hall.