You will have noticed that something is going on along the main drag (Avda. Juan Carlos) between the bus station and the beach! Yes, the crossroads where the P-4 road from Mercandona (Maria de Pineda) cuts across it is being changed into a roundabout!

Work began with the junction being cut off with barriers and a JCB ripping up the tarmac. Once that had been done, however, the workmen appear to have lost interest in it; having made the visual statement that work is in progress.
Unfortunately, this appears to be a common modus operandi; i.e., work commences, disrupting all and then continues in a desultory fashion, dragging on for months – take the case of the bicycle lane along the far end of Velilla, for example.

Anyway, let’s confine this to the positive aspect – a roundabout! With a budget of 120,073 euros this circulatory solution should make life easier for internal traffic and close encounters with vehicle-encased lunatics less frequent.

The construction company is Construcciones y Viales Plata Ruiz S.L, and was chosen because it submitted the best bid from the twelve companies that came forward…

Other projects under way are a play park for Las Maravillas in La Herradura, worth 91,000; repairs to the sports area of Las Gaviotas school in La Herradura, too, worth 28,884 euros; similar repairs to the sports area of the Río Verde school, worth exactly the same amount; the construction of a play park in La Carrera, improvements to Empedraillo, worth jointly 90,000 euros; repairs to Centro Rural Los Martínez, 30,000 euros; renovations to the changing rooms of Las Tejas football grounds in La Herradura, 85,000; the last phase of the Parque Mediterraneo, 30,000 euros and finally improvements to the Acuario, worth 65,411 euros.

It has been a condition included in the project contracts that the companies chosen must use unemployed workers in Almuñécar.

Note: since this article was printed in the hard copy edition, work has recommenced on the said roundaboutsm, bless them…
[nggallery id=62]