Madrid acknowledges 'traffic saturation' on Costa del Sol and commissions urgent report to find solutions

That the Costa del Sol suffers from severe traffic congestion is well known, not only to the local residents, but also to the tourists who also suffer from it every summer. The national government, which is responsible for the main road network (the A-7) has been slow to react, but it is now openly admitting that there is a problem on the roads along the coast of Malaga and the Campo de Gibraltar, and it has begun to take action.

The Ministry of Transport, through the directorate-general of roads, has commissioned the state roads demarcation in eastern Andalucía to study possible alternatives to improve traffic. The area that has been delimited for the investigation is from Torremolinos to Torreguadiaro (100 km), and a period of 12 months has been given for a report with proposals, according to the order, to which SUR has had access.

Specifically, the resolution of the directorate general for roads approved the order under the title "Preliminary study of alternatives for improving the state road network between Torremolinos and Torreguadiaro", in the provinces of Malaga and Cadiz. The document reminds that, with the exception of the sections which share the same route as the AP-7 (Torremolinos-Fuengirola, Marbella and Estepona bypass) and its connections, a large part of the route of the A-7 road between the two municipalities comes from the widening of the old N-340 road.

"This fact has meant that this road has poor characteristics, which is aggravated by the existence of numerous accesses as a consequence of the very strong urban pressure on the Costa del Sol", it reveals, and adds: "Between Estepona and Torreguadiaro, the A-7 does not even meet the conditions to be considered a dual carriageway, as the junctions are resolved with roundabouts at level, being a multi-lane road".

"Likewise, the A-7 carries a high intensity of traffic, particularly on the section between Fuengirola and San Pedro Alcántara, where it exceeds 65,000 vehicles per day on average, reaching 93,945 vehicles per day at the gauging station near San Pedro. This implies a deficient level of service many hours of the year due to the fact that the A-7 has only two lanes in each direction of traffic and the strict characteristics of its trunk and junctions".

This high level of traffic is due to the fact that the population of the western Costa del Sol, which is close to 600.000 inhabitants (to which must be added a not inconsiderable unregistered and tourist population), "depends for its daily mobility on the A-7, and there are no other roads, with the exception of the AP-7 motorway, which can channel mobility between population centres located along the coast; taking into account that the capacity of the AP-7 is limited because it is a toll road (making it unattractive for the daily mobility of residents on the Costa del Sol)". As well, outside the sections where they share the same route, the connections with the A-7 are scarce and require long journeys on roads with poor characteristics, continues the report.

On the other hand, the document warned: "It is complex to act to resolve or improve the problems described in the A-7. The urban pressure on the margins means that actions to increase capacity and/or create service roads or collector roads to reorganise accesses may, in many sections, be unfeasible due to the economic and social cost of the expropriations that would be necessary".

For its part, the AP-7 toll motorway, which would have sufficient margin to absorb a large part of the long and medium-distance traffic under optimum traffic conditions, is an infrastructure operated under a concession with direct tolls to users. The current reversion date is 2046 for the Malaga-Estepona section and 2054 for the Estepona-Guadiaro section.

For all these reasons, it is proposed that a preliminary study be drawn up to examine the area as a whole, taking into account all the possibilities for action, with a study of solutions such as increasing capacity or improving the A-7 motorway, including the reorganisation of accesses by building collector roads, lateral roads or service roads, remodelling junctions, etc. "The fundamental objective must be to improve road safety in the area and, as far as possible, reduce congestion".

Other proposals to be considered are: the construction of bypasses in areas of high population density; building new connections between the A-7 and the AP-7, or improving existing ones, and measures to promote the use of the AP-7. On this point, it is worth recalling the ministry's recent commitment to study discounts so that workers and students can use the motorway at a lower cost.

Therefore, over the next 12 months, the study must review the following. Gather the basic data necessary to diagnose the current state of the A-7/AP-7 corridor (geometry, traffic, non-compliance with regulations, accidents, etc); characterise, from a physical, urban and environmental point of view, the territory where the alternative actions are proposed, in order to determine the carrying capacity of a new infrastructure or the extension of the existing one; to be aware of the initiatives and plans of other administrations with competences in the field of the study, in order to be able to act in a coordinated manner and establish synergies; to design the possible alternatives for action; quantify the costs of construction, including expropriations, and subsequent maintenance and operation of each alternative; carry out a traffic study of the current situation and the possible alternatives for action, to assess their potential for improving the level of service on the A-7. To do this, a macro-simulation model with the necessary extension and zoning should be carried out, with 'big-data' mobility from mobile telephony activity.

Ultimately, concluded the report, "the preliminary study should determine which is the best possible alternative, ensuring that it is socio-economically profitable and that it has technical and environmental viability, so that in a subsequent phase the development of the necessary road studies can continue".