The subsidence on the Carchuna-Castell section of the A-7 coastal autovia remains untouched, three months after emergency work was announced.

The reason for this complete lack of activity is a bureacratic stand off between the Junta de Andalucia (socialist) and the Central Government (conservative). We’re talking about a piece of paper that Madrid says Sevilla hasn’t granted and another that Sevilla says Madrid hasn’t sent.

This last section of the much awaited, A-7 completion was inaugurated in October 2015 by a jubilant Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy; the conservatives had beaten the socialists to the finishing post.

However, one year later to the month, the Ministry of Public works detected an alarming subsidence in the road surface at kilometre point 344 within the municipality of Castell.

The reaction came in December with the decision to reduce the speed limit to 80 kmh and close the left-hand lane in both directions. Madrid also earmarked 2.4m euros for emergency repairs; money that would not only repair the defect, but also fund a survey to find out why it had happened, so that it wouldn’t happen again.

This emergency work was to begin that same month and conclude in March, but here we are at the end of March with nothing having moved.

The problem is, says Madrid, that Sevilla has regional control of mining (major earth movement, rock shifting through blasting, etc). The Ministry of Public works needs to carry out blasting, so they need permission from Sevilla – something they are still waiting for, they claim.

Sevilla, on the other hand, says that in order to issue this the construction company needs an environmental-impact document or a justification for waiving it from Madrid – something they had still been waiting for until very recently.

On the 17th of March Sevilla received a letter from the Ministry of Public Works (Fomento) to say that as the route of the motorway will not be changed, there are no environmental problems. Three days later the Junta demanded a document that supports this and that the Environmental Report of 2002 still stands.

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why nothing has budged.

Note: when we use the terms Madrid an Sevilla, we mean the Central Government in Madrid and the Regional Government in Sevilla.

(News: Castell del Ferro, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)