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Ignacio Lillo
Malaga
Tuesday, 13 August 2024, 16:14
After 17 years at a standstill, the time has finally come for the extension of the Guadalhorce valley motorway from Malaga city to move forward. The worrying accident rate on the A-357, the road with the highest number of serious accidents in the province, together with the increase in population in the valley of the same name and the impetus of the new heads of the Junta de Andalucía's Ministry of Public Works have meant that the longed-for extension of the motorway is moving forward, at least on paper.
The regional government has received eight bids (six from individual companies and two in joint ventures) from engineering consultancies interested in drafting the project to widen the A-357 road between Cerralba and Zalea. In this way, the Junta continues with its commitment to unblock the works on the Malaga-Campillos-Ronda route, which has been paralysed since 2007 and which has been resumed in recent months with the drafting of this project and the previous section, between Casapalma and Cerralba, which is already under way.
The motorway was built and is in service from the outskirts of Malaga city to the Casapalma junction, although no progress has been made since 2007. For now, the department has invested more than 331,000 euros in the drafting of the project for a four-kilometre section of the motorway between the Cerralba and Zalea junctions (from kilometre points 43 to 39). The estimated budget for the construction is 52.2 million euros, according to the Junta.
The next section, Cerralba-Zalea, will add another four kilometres of motorway with current safety and quality standards (from point 43 to 39 of the A-357) and will give continuity to the conversion into a dual carriageway of the previous Casapalma-Cerralba section, which is already at the drafting stage of the construction project.
Therefore, from the point where the road is now a single lane, at the BP petrol station in Casapalma, just before crossing the Río Grande, a section of two carriageways, seven metres wide and separated by a median, will be planned. Each of the carriageways will therefore have two 3.5-metre wide traffic lanes.
This new section will help to boost the economy in the geographical area of Alto Guadalhorce, the Serranía de Ronda and the western area of the Vega de Antequera, where there are important tourist attractions, such as the Caminito del Rey and the Sierra de las Nieves. And economically, in an area with an extensive agricultural and livestock industry, among others.
The regional minister of Public Works, Rocío Díaz, has emphasised the Andalusian government's conviction in "rescuing a crucial infrastructure for communications between the Serranía de Ronda and Malaga city, which previous governments insisted on keeping in a drawer for too many years". "We know how important this road is for the economic activity of the whole region," she added, and stressed that this infrastructure will mean a saving in transport times and an opportunity to "combat the problem of an empty Andalucía".
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