Carchuna to Almuñécar via the A-7 by 2014?

During an announced inspection of the A-7 work by the Minister of Public Works, Ana Pastor, the promise was made to link Almuñécar to Carchuna by autovia in 2014. This announcement comes days after another promise that the Almuñécar-Guadalfeo section would be opened before the end of this year.

The said Ministra de Fomento remained at the site for seven hours, stopping only for a sandwich break, going over all of the autovia work between Taramay and Albuñol, starting at 11.00h on the 5th of this month – it was 18.00h before she finished the visit at the Almuñécar end.

She went over completion dates with the heads of each section under construction during her 16 kilometre inspection tour, five of which she had already promised would enter into service this year.

She explained to the gathered press at the end of the tour that she wanted to see with her own eyes, rather than inspect blueprints, how the extra 30m euros was to be spent on the Minilla Tunnel, which lies between Taramay and Lobres. the extra budget is going on a special tunnel lining to reinforce its waterproofing – excessive water infiltration has dogged the tunnel work up til now.

Controversially, she claimed that this section of the autovia was only 23% finished when her government took up office, which contrasts with all previous reports that as a minimum put it at just over 50% completed.

She also announced that before February 2014 the Gorgoracha-Puntalón section will come into service. This section includes a single-lane (one for each direction) connection to Motril Port.

The Minister also ratified the pledge that the Puntalón-Carchuna section, running for six kilometres, will also be in service in February 2014, meaning that, at last, the Torrenueva summer traffic jams will finally be a phenomenon of the past.

If the Minister maintains her word – a rarity amongst politicians, many consider – within six months (counting this month), drivers heading east from Almuñécar will be able to reach Granada and as far as Carchuna without leaving the autovia.

Past promises have not stood up in reality: socialist Minister of Public Works, José Blanco in 2009, gave the completion date as the beginning of 2012. His boomerang statement was, “A socialist will inaugurate the A-7 in 2012. After spending a thousand million on it, the last thing we need will be that Arenas (PP candidate for the Prime Minister of the Junta) inaugurates it.”

It turns out that he was both right and wrong – it will be a conservative that completes the A-7, but it won’t be Javier Arenas because he failed to become El Presidente de la Junta de Andalucia, bless his cotton socks.

Her final prediction was that we would have to wait until 2015 for the final sections between Carchuna and Castell de Ferro and from Polopos to Albuñol to come into service, and thus complete the autovia from one side of the Costa Tropical to the other.

(News: Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia – Photo: Infocostatropical.com)

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