Junta receives 13 bids for road-widening project accessing Ronda from A-367

Andalucía's regional government has received 13 bids (eleven from individual companies and two in a joint venture) for the drafting of the project to widen the access links to Ronda from the A-367 road in Malaga province.

The regional minister for Development, Territorial Planning and Housing, Rocío Díaz, said she supported the work to improve the links to and from the town and the work being undertaken to improve connectivity along the Malaga-Campillos-Ronda road network. The latter had been at a standstill since 2007, but now projects are being reactivated - for example, increasing the capacity of 12 kilometres of parts of the connecting roads (four in Ronda and another eight between Casapalma and Zalea).

Rocío Díaz stressed that the regional team has had to work "practically from scratch to channel a key infrastructure for the economic and social development of inland areas such as the Serranía de Ronda". "Juanma Moreno's government has clearly shown its commitment to this area with these projects," she added.

The motorway from Malaga has been built and is open to traffic to the Casapalma junction, although no further kilometres have been developed since 2007. The ministry will continue to complete the Malaga-Ronda-Campillos connection with three new projects.

One of them involves the widening of the A-367 between kilometres 36.8 and 40.8 to a dual carriageway and will begin to be drafted with an investment of 300,404 euros. The estimated budget for the construction of this four-kilometre section is 14.4 million euros, according to the tender documents.

The project includes a dual carriageway road, each side to be seven metres wide and separated by a dividing strip. Each of the carriageways will have two 3.50 metre wide traffic lanes.

This new section of road will help to boost the economy in the geographical area of the Serranía de Ronda and the area below and to the west of Antequera by improving road communications with Malaga city and the rest of Andalucía. This road improvement will also save time in transport of both goods and people, as well as being an opportunity to combat the 'emptying of Andalucía'. This involves the migration of the population from small towns and villages to the bigger towns and cities of the region and beyond.