The Junta’s Minister of Public Works, Rocío Díaz, visited the construction work on the first phase of the new access road to the Alpujarra towards the end of last month.

Work on the first section is moving forward again, at last, with the digging of a tunnel, followed by the building of a viaduct (bridge), which will make the road safer, eliminating more than twenty dangerous curves. That’s the plan, anyway.

The Minister considers that the new access for the Alpujarra will be “strategic for the future and development of the region, to boost its economy, and to establish and increase its population.”

She added, “The Alpujarra has enormous potential that only needed safer and less winding access via the Cerro de los Cañones to improve its road communications with Granada and the rest of the province.”

The first section runs from the Tablate Bridge to the water-bottling plant and has a budget of nearly twelve million. The new road will only be 1.3 kilometres long, which is 42% shorter than the current one.

This shortening of the route is thanks to the 97m-long tunnel (a cut-&-cover construction; in other words it won’t be bored), followed by a 166m-long viaduct.

The second phase of work will extend from the bottling plant to the town of Lanjarón, with a budget of €6.4 million and is close to 20% complete. Todate, much of the route has been cleared, most of the bottling plant’s services have been restored, and the main, drainage system has been installed.

Editorial comment: If  you’re thinking that this new road route is taking forever, then you’ll be right because the project dates back to September 2004, just over 20 years ago.

(News: Tablate/Lanjaron, Alpujarra, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Alpujarra Access, A-348, Tunnel, Cover-&-Cut, Viaduct, Bridge

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