The work on the stretch between Taramay and Lobres has only progressed two percent since the opening of the La Herradura – Taramay stretch. In other words, virtually nothing has been accomplished on this much-needed stretch of autovia.

With the recent announcement of the ‘Tijerazo’ (Big Snip) to the public-works budget, all the mayors of the coastal towns held their collective breath, waiting to hear the Ministro de Fomento, Pepe Blanco, confirm that the A-7 would be getting the axe. He still hasn’t confirmed or denied, so these mayors, headed by the Mayor of Motril, are banding together to make war.

(More on in Three Summers More II.)

Jose Blanco, Ministro de Fomento

Patience has snapped, however, with the Chambers of Commerce Almería, Granada and Motril banding together with the Business Confederations of both provinces to demand the prompt completion of the A-7.

Quite apart from the non-appearance of the A-7, the N-340, coastal main road is falling apart and is being hastily patched up, ready to take on the onslaught of another summer of traffic.

Strangely enough, not one of the affected towns is governed by the PSOE, who hold power in the national and regional governments; i.e., La Herradura, Almuñecar, Salobreña and Motril. These main coastal towns are governed either be the CA (in the case of the first two) or by the PP (in the case of the last two.)

Does this have any real bearing? When you take into account the eight years that the PP were in power in Madrid, during which not one stretch of motorway was completed, either on the A-7 or A-44, it doesn’t seem so. Perhaps we should simply change from La Costa Tropical to La Costa Olivdada?
Which ever way you look at it, we are in for several summers of N-340 collapses, kilometric tailbacks and bottle necks where the Granada road reaches the coast, not to mention the Torrenueva gauntlet for east and westbound cars..

The Mayor got together with his counterparts from Albuños (María José Sánchez) and Sorvilán (Matías Rodríguez) to analyse the situation. They are also in contact with a lawyer from Adra, who is handling the affairs of several affected clients.

The Mayor of Polopos claims that they are disposed to do whatever is necessary to force the long-awaited payout to those that lost their land through compulsory purchase along the Polopos-Albuñol stretch of the A-7 Autovia del Mediterraneo.

Bridge Evolution

Last month all eyes swivelled to the virtually completed La Herradura-Taramay A-7 autovía – it was all over, bar the shouting, yet the announced inauguration turned out to be for the last bit of the A-44, Granada-Motril autovía.
We all trudged up there, to the marquee that had been erected for the announcement; air-conditioned shelter for the Minister of Fostering – as the Spanish now call the Minister of Public Works.
Between public functionaries and the expectant press, there were about 150 people gathered to hear the said minister, José Blanco. None was more attentive to his words than the opposition party, who were poised to pounce, if his speech could be considered ‘electioneering.’
See a full account of the opening of this stretch of autovía and its consequences, both good and bad, in A-44 But No A-7 II & III.

The original stone bridge and tunnel there dates back to 1860 during the reign of Isabel II. The iron bridge that runs parallel – used until the recent inauguration – was built in the 1990’s, and finally the new bridge, which is a whopper, is probably the biggest and most complicated of the whole route.
Although pillars have sunk into reservoirs and whole hillsides have subsided, they got the bloody stretch finished… and it cost!
Boy did it cost: each kilometre cost 14m euros, which is three times the cost of the preceding sections. In fact, the Ízbor – Vélez section cost the same, per kilometre, as the AVE high-speed-train routes.
Is it completely finished, then? Well, not according to the bikers who made a noisy protest outside the marquee where the Minister was preening his feathers. Although he did his best not to show his annoyance, the affect that the bikers’ protest had on the gathered press and the opposition politicians present was completely the opposite. In fact, when the Minister’s car drew up, most of the press crews turned their cameras and attention to the bikers, with their imitation US police sirens, whistles and grinning insults, such as “¡Sin Vergüenzas – esto no está acabado!”
The reason for their protest was that the autovía had been opened for use with single, metallic crash barriers instead of double ones. For the bikers it was an unforgivable sin – and who could blame them?
After all, we’re only talking about a ten kilometres of autovía and the expense of using double barriers is nothing compared to the overall cost of building it; 142.75 million euros. The single-barrier system virtually guarantees a biker being cut it half or losing a limb, if he should slide into one of the vertical stanchions, even as slow as 50 kph.
The opening of the autovía was not a cause for rejoicing for everybody – for some it means going out of business. There are numerous café-bars and restaurants through the gorge, as well as a couple of gas stations. The gas station, just before you enter the gorge when approaching from the south, reported a 40% drop in trade when the Vélez Benaudalla bypass was opened as an alternative route to the gorge. Now with the autovía fully operative, he will simply go out of business.

Gorgoracha Tunnel

The gorge road came into being in 1976, making the old route, which ran from Vélez Benaudalla, through the Gorgoracha Tunnel, reaching Motril near where the hospital now stands. That’s the way you went, if you wanted to reach the coast from Granada. Well, Antonio, recognising the future potential of the gorge route, opened his bar, El Azud de Vélez, in 1977 and had a very prosperous 30 years out of it. He is the first to recognise that just as trade flowed down the gorge route, it will now flow elsewhere and that an end of an epoch has been reached, and with it, the end of his business, perhaps.
Finally, was the inauguration of the much-awaited autovía a piece of shameless electioneering, squeezed in at the last legal moment before the European Election campaign began? Yes, of course it was. It is amusing, of course, because they all do it. Not long ago, for instance, the Almuñécar branch of the PSOE heavily criticised the Mayor for inaugurating the Aquarium just before the Municipal Elections, yet here is their party in Madrid pulling exactly the same stunt.

Exit ramp above Taramay

Yes, we’ve all heard it before – several times, but the latest word from the sources within the construction company is that the autovía will reach Almuñécar’s Taramay during this month, or by the beginning of the next by the latest. “A question of weeks,” they said, on the 20th of April. The Ministry of Public Works is keeping its’ bureaucratic mouth firmly closed, however, not wishing to wipe more ‘egg off its face,’ should the opening be further delayed by unexpected hold ups. The Ministry, therefore, was quite happy to let the building company stick its’ neck out, so that Minister of Public Works can say that the company was speaking out of turn, if it went wrong, and catch the praise, if it does not.
Although that leaves about ten kilometres of the old N-340 to cover for anybody trying to get to Salobreña, it does at least mean that they can kiss goodbye to the mind-numbing tailbacks that literally stretch from La Herradura to Salobreña sometimes. The particular hell of wading through Almuñécar’s’ un-coordinated traffic lights will be an unpleasant thing of the past.
Louise Powell went up into the hills above Taramay to see exactly what things were coming along and brought quite a bit of photographic evidence that strongly indicated that – this time – they might not be lying through their teeth and that the autovía will be linked up to the present La Herradura motorway terminus.
Semana Santa certainly didn’t catch by surprise those that were expecting slow-rolling doom, because there was plenty.

Access roundabout on the N-340, Taramay

Anybody that goes up and has a look, as Louise did, can see for themselves that the roundabout underneath the exit for Taramay even has the vegetation in place in the centre. As for the actual link made by the roundabout in the N-340, next to the big fruit warehouse, it is plain for anybody that uses the road between Salobreña and Taramay to see that it is complete. The tunnels – such as Cantalobos, which at two kilometres in length is the longest, have their lighting in place. There are road signs standing expectantly, already in place and the railings etc. are adorning the bridges/viaducts. It’s set and is evidently very close to completion, so maybe they’re telling the truth this time, after all.
But this is not only good – and long awaited – news for Almuñécar; it is good news for the tourist sector of Salobreña and Motril – Málaga Airport is even closer.