No new stretch of the A-7 coastal autovia has been inaugurated since July 2009, despite repeated promises to the contrary. This summer will be no different from the last one in that respect.

The PP, in the year running up to their ascension to Government, was active in criticising the then, socialist government for not ‘coming up with the goods.’ The PP Mayor for Motril, Carlos Rojas, led local pressure from the business and political sectors to push for the completion of the A-7 in Granada. However, since his party came to power in Madrid, this particular politician appears to have lost his vigor in demanding results from the Central Government.

The previous socialist administration, creative in valueless promises, even decided an ‘improvement’ to the existing A-7 autovia in the province of Málaga was of more importance than actually making good their pledges in Granada.

But leaving aside how politicians from both parties have failed, miserably to complete the last stretch of double-lane, road communication along the whole Mediterranean coast of Spain – a mere 40 kilometres or less – we should concentrate on what the prospects are in the near future of driving between Taramay and Castell de Ferro without bumping along the single-lane N-340.

Forget, straight away, this summer… and you can forget the next one, too.

The difference between the previous administration’s tactic of giving false completion dates is that the present administration will give none – the repeated response to the eternal question is only, “as soon as possible,” so we can expect no help from that quarter in determining ‘when.’ Around the 1st of June, the Government informed Congress (Lower House of Parliament) that the ‘termination of the A-7 was a priority,’ which, although reassuring, is pretty meaningless as far as completion dates go.

The next section that will be opened is the Lobre-Taramay one, but as money is short, the hectic pace (double shifts) has slowed to a normal one. Nobody will give a termination date.

At the Lobres end sits the finished section that will connect Lobres to the A-44. This section has not been inaugurated because it doesn’t actually go anywhere on either side. There was talk about actually putting it into use in the meantime, so that people from Lobres can access it from the roundabout near the village and thus at least be able to reach the A-44 and thus Granada. The idea was discounted, however.

Now, for Motril to be connected to the Málaga branch of the A-7, the Gorgoracha-Puntalón section would have to be completed, but there is no way on Earth that this will happen before 2014 – it is still dormant with no activity taking place as we write this. The outgoing Government adjudicated the contract in November last year, but the incoming Government says that the socialists had made a false statement as they had not allotted any funds for it – or better said, the allotted funds were used elsewhere.

The present Government says that it is looking for the said funds to finance it. The new Minister for Fomento (Public Works) said that the section would be adjudicated at the beginning of April, which turned out to be an April the First (April Fools Day) promise.

The only positive note is that only 20% of the entire section remains to be terminated – it was 80% completed when disaster struck with the apparition of an unexpected and unstable section of bedrock, which would have so increased the original budget that the existing contract was scrapped pending a new one to be drawn up and financed.

As for the Carchuna-Castell section – not a peep; total silence, no comment.

Now, anybody that has travelled along the roller-coaster N-340 will know that work is being carried out below Urbanización Alfa-Mar, where the two lanes have been moved about two metres inland, using the hard shoulder. Below the road, on the hillside above the sea, a lot of earth movement is going on and piles sunk to stabilize it. The road surface, however, still undulates alarmingly, necessitating a 40 kph speed limit.

Couple the above fact with the announcement that at the beginning of the year the N-340 between Salobreña and Torrenueva would be resurfaced, and you have an unsettling indications that the N-340 is going to be around for a while yet as the main coastal artery.

Amazingly – or is it? – the resurfacing work that was supposed to commence at the beginning of the year will commence now, just when the traffic load is increasing into summer proportions. Yes, on the 6th of January, Minister Ana Pastor announced that 15.6m euros would be spent on resurfacing the N-340 from the Málaga border to the Almería one, but what interested regular N-340 users were the kilometres of road between kilometre point 329 and 334 – the said five kilometres that have not received a new layer of tarmac in eight years of constant heavy traffic.

So, Ladies and Gentlemen, Hell is guaranteed this July through to September on the N-340 as it attempts, one year more, to handle the traffic load of an non-existent autovia.

(News: Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)