Compromise reached on delayed plan for northern access road to airport

The Junta de Andalucía regional government and the acting national government appear to have reached an agreement over an important aspect of the planned northern access road to Malaga Airport.

Local residents and people catching flights from the Guadalhorce valley have been waiting for the new dual carriageway from the A-7 outer ring motorway to the terminal.

The original plan was to build the road, part of the national ministry of Infrastructure's budget, to integrate with a new distributor road connecting industrial areas on the northwestern side of Malaga which was to be paid for by the Junta regional government. But the world financial crisis halted the plan.

Impatient to proceed, last year Madrid said it would go ahead with the airport road alone, which is urgently needed as it also improves access to Alhaurín de la Torre, where there are rush hour hold-ups off the motorway. However the new 26.7- million-euro airport access road plan didn't make allowances for adding the future local distributor road.

Now both the Junta and acting national government have agreed how to adapt the road design to allow for this local road.

Despite the compulsory purchase of land for both roads having long been completed, local drivers will have to wait to see what happens in Sunday's general election before work on this airport access road can start.