Works on Avenida Alay, in Benalmádena Costa. L. Cádiz

Serious accessibility problems cause a new delay in the opening of Avenida Alay in Benalmádena

Although there had been an agreement to postpone one phase of the works until September, it appears that the main access to the marina will remain closed this August

Lorena Cádiz

Benalmádena

Wednesday, 9 August 2023, 23:58

The main access to Benalmádena's marina, Avenida Alay, is still closed for roadworks, and is due to remain so for the rest of the high season. The current work, which began in September 2022, should have been finished in mid-June. As this was not the case, the council leaders decided to postpone the second phase of the works until September and open the first phase on 15 July, so that the access would be operational during the busiest tourist weeks.

In the end, this has not been possible. The Benalmádena councillor for roads and works, José Luis Bergillos, said: "The previous administration did not consider that, in order to cover the tunnel, the work involved raising the road by 50 centimetres." As a result, he said, "The buildings that were at ground level are now half a metre below the level of the street, which translates into three steps that are causing numerous problems of accessibility and inconvenience to residents, and pose a problem for the subsequent entry and exit of vehicles to their homes."

Bergillos stressed that the work is not finished. He added that the reasons for the delay are also due to the fact that "in the processing we found two amendments to the work, the first of which was presented in March and the previous administration had left it on hold since then without attending to the problems immediately".

"When we came to the local government we had to deal with this modification. Today it has been drawn up by the construction management," said the councillor. "We are going to try to do the processing as quickly as possible to open the avenue partially, but being August it will be delayed because this work began and it was planned late and badly."

As for the execution of the work, the councillor said that the technicians have found "serious deficiencies that the previous government team ignored, for example, at the exit of the Diana building car park, or in the access ramp to the Torremar building".