One thing is a road that never ends, and another is road construction that never ends, which is the case of the road to Sorvilán.

Sorvilán is a small village, a little inland, that has a municipal dependency on the coast, Los Yesos, and it is the road – or lack of it – that connects the two that is the problem.

The Provincial Council has promised that “very soon” they will hire the publicly owned, construction company Tragsa, which unlike private companies won’t go bankrupt half way through the contract, which has been the case previously. The task is merely completing the abandoned construction work on the road, rather than starting from scratch.

Locals have been waiting over a score years for this road to be completed, which would cut down the time taken between the two villages from 50 minutes to only 15 minutes. We’re talking about 13 kilometres of road of which only three remain to be tarmacked. It’s not a lot to ask.

Somebody pointed out that if you live in Los Yesos on the coast, its easier to find a burial niche in the next town along than to find one within their own municipality. If true, it is a clear indication of the strangulation of the municipality’s growth – nobody wants to invest or go to live in a village with such poor road communications. It’s not just about being able to get down to Los Yesos, but rather being able to reach Motril Hospital, for example, relatively quickly.

After fits and jumps, work recommence in 2019 with a termination date of the 23rd of August, but nothing happened. Instead, the company dumped a load of earth on the road to stop people risking using the unfinished road. So, locals have to go to Albuñol to reach the coast (La Rábita) which is closer to the boundary with Almería than it is to Motril’s Hosptial Santa Ana.

What’s still holding things up is that the Provincial Council has to formally rescind the contract with the previous building company which has not completed the job before awarding the contract to Tragsa, and that is a lot of slow-motion paperwork.

(News: Sorvilan/Los Yesos, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)