Anybody travelling between La Herradura and Almuñecar will have noted road workers laying tarmac and other improvements.

The other improvements in question being stabilization work, which can be seen going on below the road, beside the main junction – there has been a boring machine that has been sinking horizontal piles to stabilize the road bank.

Most of the work, however, is taking place between the western entrance to the Punta de la Mona tunnel and the very tight bend, known as the Mateano bend to locals, which is the one that gives access to Rancho Rio Verde.

Work stopped during the December mini holiday period at the beginning of the month, to continue afterwards. But despite all the resplendent new tarmac and re-painted white lines, the two major obstacles remain: just up from Mateano, the outer lane is closed because the hillside is slipping, causing the road surface to buckle, and at the mouth of the tunnel where a rock slide closed down one of the lanes, as well.

You can be certain that many habitual users of this stretch of the N-340 would have preferred the old tarmac surface and the money spent on sorting out the closed lanes…

(News: Herradura/Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)