Contract awarded for key section of Costa del Sol coastal path

The contract for the construction of a large footbridge over the mouth of the River Torrox on the eastern Costa del Sol has been awarded to Media Madera Ingenieros Consultores, a company based in Asturias. The contract is worth just over 1.7 million euros (excluding VAT) according to the official announcement published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).

The contract, signed on 19 December, corresponds to the second phase of the project, which focuses on the manufacture and assembly of the wooden bridge. Once completed it will span the riverbed and connect Torrox lighthouse with Castillo Bajo-Conejito and El Peñoncillo beaches.

The footbridge will be 165 metres long, with access points each side totalling an additional 100 metres, making it the largest of its kind in the Axarquía and the second longest in Malaga province. The longest one is located at the mouth of the Guadalhorce river in Malaga city.

The footbridge forms part of the ambitious provincial Senda Litoral (coastal path), which is being funded by Malaga's provincial authority, the Diputación de Málaga. Once completed, it will link the nearly 180 kilometres of the Costa del Sol.

Although the project is already more than 90 per cent complete, the eastern Costa del Sol has some of the most complicated to sections to connect, due to its terrain, environmental conditions and administrative procedures.

The Diputación has invested more than 1.3 million euros in walkways and improvements to Torrox's coastline, including the bridges over the River Güi and the Manzano stream, since 2017. Other pending sections include the El Peñoncillo and Calaceite areas of Torrox Costa.