New bus and high-occupancy lane opens on A-357 on Malaga city outskirts following year of construction work

Work to widen the carriageway of the A-357, Autovía del Guadalhorce, on the section between Malaga University and the provincial police station, has been completed. On Thursday morning, this extra bus and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane (known in Spanish as bus-VAO), designed to decongest access for the 74,000 vehicles that enter the city from this point every day, was opened.

The process has been particularly complex, given that, in order to avoid affecting traffic, work has been carried out at night. The widening of the carriageway was mostly carried out on the inside, making it necessary to strengthen the pillars and widen the viaduct decks.

This operation was especially delicate at the junction over the MA-20, Ronda Oeste, which forced the total closure of traffic for three nights. Similarly, traffic had to be cut off during the load tests.

Promoted by the regional ministry of public work, the lane is 2.3 kilometres long. The project was created and executed by Malaga-based company Sando, at a cost of around 8.5 million euros.

Vehicles with two or more occupants, public transport, emergency vehicles, drivers with reduced mobility, taxis, motorbikes and cars with a zero-emissions environmental label will be able to use this bus-HOV lane, which is now fully signposted.

The regional government of Andalucía added a bus-HOV lane on the accesses to the Malaga Techpark from the A-357 a few years ago. Another extra lane on the stretch between the Clínico and the Techpark is also necessary.

Regional minister of public work Rocío Díaz said: "With this lane, the competitiveness, commercial speed and performance of the many buses that access Malaga via this road will be increased. Thousands of people will see their journey times reduced," she said, adding that this will not only benefit regular passengers who need to get to work, but also promote a more frequent use of public transport.

Díaz stated that all bus lines, both interurban and urban, will be able to use this lane. The Malaga transport consortium and its 11 lines will be able to take full advantage of the lane, improving travel times and service efficiency for over 1.3 million annual passengers.

The regional minister said that they will continue expansion in Malaga with the construction of the bus-VAO lane on the A-404 in Alhaurín de la Torre, which has a budget of 8.8 million.