Every summer we are reminded that the section of the N-340 between Salobreña and Torrenueva Costa badly needs another lane becaue of the traffic pouring off the A-44 where it connects at the coast.

With this in mind, the Motril Urban Planning Department at the Town Council pointed out that a project for increasing the lanes has been drafted and land expropriations begun on the part between the Salobreña junction and the A-44/Motril Port junction.

The Chairman of the Motril Chamber of Commerce, Julio Rodríguez, together with the Chairman of the Costa Tropical Business Association (AECOST), Javier Rubiño, confirmed that a works contract had even been awarded and the roadsides along the entire route had already been expropriated for this purpose.

If you look at the N-340 where it goes over the Rambla de las Brujas it is evident that it was already widened years ago for this purpose and property fences running alongside were set back from where they original ones stood. “All of this has been expropriated,” they said.

So what happened and why didn’t it go ahead? It seems that the construction company discovered added topigraphical problems that had not been included in the job specifics, which would complicate the task… and consequently, cost for the company more, so it baulked.

It is also said that the Road Authoritiest considered that the A-7 coming online would reduce the need ,or at least the urgency, for this work, as the A-7 was supposed to reduce a lot of the traffic along the N-340. However, since then, the amount of traffic along the N-340 keeps growing each year.

The road also lacks hard shoulders along a large part of the route. Where there are, they are not very wide, which causes serious problems when a vehicle breaks down, forcing the rest of the traffic to go around it.

To complicate things further, despite it being a main coastal artery, cyclists and runners use it, with the latter keeping to the hard shoulder were there is one.

So, Motril Chamber of Commerce and AECOST intend to contact the Central Government to get first-hand knowledge of their plans for this road. After all, much of the needed land for the widening work has already been obtained through compulsory purchases.

(News: Salobrena/Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Road Widening Needed, N-340, A-44, Motril Port, Compulsory Purchase, Hard Shoulders, Summer Traffic, A-7

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