October date for San Pedro tunnel

After a wait of over 15 years the start of the project to build a tunnel on the A-7 (old N-340) as it passes through the notorious San Pedro de Alcántara bottleneck is about to begin. The plans were presented this week in Marbella by the Minister of Public Works, Magdalena Álvarez, before a large audience of local people.

Much of the plans had already been revealed but the minister did make two points clear. The first was that the cost of expropriating the land required for the underpass would now not fall on the municipality as initially stated but would be met by the central government. Indeed given the economic and financial crisis faced by the town hall there was no way the project could proceed if the land compensation had to be funded locally. Secondly whilst the construction work was in progress traffic would be diverted around San Pedro via the southern by-pass through Nueva Alcántara.

Sra Álvarez told the audience that "co-operation between the administrations is fundamental" in getting the underpass built. In addition she acknowledged that local people "cannot wait any longer and that the completion of the tunnel is important for safety, the traffic and quality of life."

All the official paperwork has now been completed and as a result in October of this year all the land is due to be expropriated and the first machines will start work. The timetable is for the project to be completed in 23 months so the tunnel should be operational in September 2008 to carry the 75,000 vehicles that drive through San Pedro each day.
The key to the scheme is the tunnel through San Pedro that will be a kilometre long. Two of the present three intersections will remain at El Ingenio and the Avenida Marqués del Duero but the Ronda crossroads will be replaced with a viaduct. There will be new access and service roads and the existing bus stops will be reorganised with pedestrian bridges to ensure safe crossing plus a new roundabout to distribute the traffic at Guadalmina.