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CostaBlancaPeople 14th - 20th November 2017
Widening of N332 gets the go ahead It looks as though plans are now underway to widen the N332 as it passes through Torrevieja, but we can’t expect relief on this road any time soon.
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t is unlikely that the work will begin before 2020 as there must be a lengthy contracting process with 40 million euros at stake. The townspeople of Torrevieja have been waiting for almost ten years for something to be done about the horrendous tailbacks that there are, particularly in the summer months. The announcement that the road widening would finally go ahead was made on 8th November in the Boletín Oficial del estado. It is estimated that there are around 40,000 vehicles a day that use the road and during the summer season and
festivals it rises to 50,000. Finding a way of making their passage smoother is no easy matter. The process of contracting a business to begin the work is likely to take 10 months alone. Provided everything goes to plan and there are no environmental hold ups then the most optimistic possibility is that work begins in the first quarter of 2020. Since the widening of the road was first planned the costs have gone up. Along with this, there has continued to be controversy of who should settle the majority of the cost and pay for it. Not every part of the N332 has had to wait so long. The remainder of the road in this area was doubled in 2008 (Pilar de la Horadada to Torrevieja) and in 2010 (from Torrevieja to Guardamar). It left the Torrevieja stretch marooned in the middle as a one track road that has been a bottleneck ever since. Some of the hold-up has been over land ownership
as not all the land that was needed belonged to the town itself. Now, we are informed that it will cost as much as 986,000 just for the drafting of the plans for the route – let alone carrying it out. The project has become a much more complex one since it was first conceived. The new project will also take measures to address congestion on the roads leading onto the N332 and hold up traffic passing through the town. Currently traffic is not allowed to overtake on the N332 as it passes through Torrevieja due to the number of accidents there have been there in spite of warning signs alerting drivers to the problem. This further slows down the flow but is considered necessary to try and avoid more deaths. It may seem a long time to wait, but at least now the announcement has been made and we can look forward to quieter roads ahead – however distant. Suzanne O’Connell
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