These are the proposed measures that could help put an end to traffic jams on key section of A-7 motorway on Costa del Sol

Malaga city hall and Rincón de la Victoria town hall have sent a technical project to Spain's central government with imaginative solutions to tackle the problem of traffccongestion at rush hour between the city and the town.

The budget for the project, which covers a stretch of 30 kilometres, exceeds 14 million euros and includes the redesign of seven accesses to the A-7 motorway. Measures such as adding lanes, redesigning roundabouts and segregating lanes are planned to increase the capacity of the junctions, reduce traffic jams and, of course, increase road safety.

The solutions were presented on Thursday 11 September by the president of the provincial authority, the Diputación de Málaga and mayor of Rincón, Francisco Salado, along with the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre. They explained that some of the solutions can be implemented urgently given the situation of an infrastructure that was inaugurated in the 1990s and improved in 2003 with the new Ronda Este-Rincón, years later with the partial third lane on the Ronda Este, but which cannot absorb the demographic growth of Malaga, Rincón, the rest of the Axarquía and the traffic coming from the motorway linking Malaga, Motril and Adra.

Salado spoke of the urgent need for major investment in infrastructure around the province, including the demand for a coastal train and the improvement of the Cercanías local train line. He recalled how De la Torre, via Promálaga, presented in 2017 the preliminary project for the Vial Perimetral, a second ring road to the east that would link Chilches with Puerto de la Torre.

"We propose to act on accesses and junctions to avoid bottlenecks, which are a worrying factor in road safety," he said. Salado pointed out that the project was sent to the Ministry on 2 May, along with a joint letter with De la Torre. There has been no response and the formal convening of the transport committee is still awaited.

"They are feasible, viable and can be addressed as emergency work. Because this is an emergency. It is not something we have to wait years for. There is a collapse in the daily commute of thousands of drivers", he said, while comparing the cost of the action with those derived from excess emissions, lost working days or traffic accidents.

Salado recalled that Rincón has gone from 17,000 inhabitants in the 1990s to the current 53,000; that Vélez-Málaga has gone from 50,000 to 86,000, and that Malaga has grown by 76,000 inhabitants.

De la Torre stated that it would be difficult to find a more profitable investment in the whole of Spain: "The effect is a lot with relatively little money," he said, also referring to the Vial Perimetral. "The logical thing is that the Ministry accepts and supports these measures," he said.

The technical report shows a 40% growth in traffic over the last decade on the Ronda Este (Carretera de los Montes), in the same road (El Palo), 79%, in the variant of Rincón (Benagalbón), 56%, and between Rincón and Vélez in Almayate, 41%.

These are the seven proposed interventions, detailed by the engineer Carlos Atienza, from Andaluza de Modelado e Ingeniería (AMEI):

On the accesses from El Limonar, a loop is planned to the north. To the south, it is planned to segregate lanes. This action is budgeted at 3.7 million euros.

They are phased solutions which are independent and can be prioritised, the technical team explained.

To the north, a similar alternative to Limonar is proposed with a new loop to lengthen the route.

To the south, for space reasons, lanes cannot be segregated but storage capacity is extended so as not to encroach on the road. The waiting time will be the same, but road safety will increase considerably. The cost, excluding IVA, would be around 1.78 million euros.

In the north, on the Pinares descent, the gradients are adapted, the slope is lowered and the street is rectified. And a roundabout will be built. To the south, the aim is to double the lane and improve gradients of up to 21% and leave them at 12%. The cost would be around 1.78 million.

The aim here is to divide the problem and give users an exit to the Cueva del Tesoro, shopping centre, etc. Segregated lanes are proposed. The estimated cost is 2.5 million euros.

'Knots' are designed above the junction and transition roundabouts, and a rearrangement of the accesses is planned. The cost would exceed 1.35 million, excluding taxes.

Here it is has been decided to improve the acceleration and deceleration lanes in order to slow traffic when joining the road. The budget would be around 340,000 euros.

The plan is to rearrange flows with two roundabouts and make merging routes longer. Visibility and the ability to adapt to the road will be improved. The estimated cost is 990,000 euros.