Francis Salado: 'The provincial council is ready to put up the money for the A-7 junctions in Malaga'
The transport infrastructure congress held on Thursday analysed the works needed to boost the airport, the port, the railways and the roads in the province
The Andalusian transport infrastructure congress (CITA) brought together the main experts in this field in Malaga on Thursday to analyse the necessary improvements to the airport, port, trains and roads in the region. At the opening of this forum, the President of the provincial council, Francis Salado, said that the province is "in an extreme situation", due to the lack of infrastructure, an issue highlighted once again on Thursday by a severe traffic jam stretching from the city to Rincón de la Victoria, caused by a lorry breakdown in the San José tunnel.
"It is not confrontation, but a responsibility and an obligation to champion the needs of the province," said Salado. He explained that in a few years this will be the most populated province in Andalucía and it has challenges in terms of transport, housing, energy and water. "We need projects, deadlines and funding; urgent investments in mobility are required because the situation is collapsing daily and the motorways cannot cope anymore," he added.
"Traffic jams like Thursday's happen every week, so we must demand that the government gets on with it now"
"Traffic jams like the one on Thursday happen every week, so we have to demand that the government gets down to work now." In this regard, he highlighted the proposal to improve the links to the A-7 in Malaga and Rincón proposed by Madeca, and on which the ministry of transport has not yet responded. On this point, the president announced that the provincial council could even provide the funding, although he said that the 14 million euros that this work has been valued at "is nothing for the ministry's budget".
Cercanías improvements
Salado agreed with the Mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, in demanding that progress must be made in improving and extending the coastal Cercanias train line, "the most profitable in Spain and which is still the same as when it was inaugurated 50 years ago, when in other regions it has been improved". He said that the coastal train will be the most socially, environmentally and economically sustainable project in Spain.
He also called for a subsidy on the coastal motorway and improved access to the A-7. The provincial president ended by congratulating Aena on the announcement of the forthcoming expansion of Malaga Airport.
Among the speakers at the CITA congress in the auditorium of the provincial council were Mario Muñoz-Atanet, deputy minister for development of the regional government; Sara Hernández, secretary general for sustainable mobility of the ministry of transport; and Francisco Esteban, president of the world association for waterborne transport infrastructure (PIANC).
There were also four round table discussions with experts on the works needed to boost Andalucía in terms of ports, airports, trains and roads.
