Serranía de Ronda mayors unite to call on Junta to give urgent priority to repair of key Costa del Sol road

Vanessa Melgar

Wednesday, 12 March 2025, 11:53

Around twenty mayors from the Serranía de Ronda are met at Ronda town hall on Tuesday 11 March to ask the Junta de Andalucía for "priority" in the repair of the boulder-blocked road between the mountain town and San Pedro Alcántara on the Costa del Sol. The road was severely damaged by a landslide that happened in the municipality of Benahavís on Saturday 8 March due to heavy rains rom storm Jana.

The landslide has cut access for a total of 9,000 thousand people who travel for work between the Serranía and the coast. Until the road is reopened, they will have to use the Ardales or Gaucín detour to get to their workplace, which significantly increases their commute. This will cause major economic damage to the area, as well as a drop in tourist activity.

After the meeting, the mayor of Ronda María de la Paz Fernández announced the institutional manifesto that the municipal bodies of the area have sent to the Junta's administrations.

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It includes measures that have been put on table to help alleviate the situation for those workers who cannot use the road by setting up additional public transport services direct to the Costa del Sol, that companies such as those on the Parque Tecnológico de Andalucía (PTA) in Malaga will facilitate working from home, for the regional government to temporarily drop the toll on the motorway between Malaga and Manilva. They have also clalled for irect aid for the self-employed and SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) affected.

As spokesperson for all the mayors that signed the manifesto, Fernández also stated that the Junta has been asked to "definitively fix" the A-397 and to activate the preliminary project already drawn up, which includes the creation of lanes for slow traffic, the widening of verges and the improvement of the road surface. "It is a mountain road that needs major repairs," said Fernández. She also stated the importance for buses to leave Ronda around 6 or 6.30am "to be able to reach the coast at 8am".

The idea to extend the work from home option to more people seeks to reduce traffic on the Ardales connection to Malaga, as well as the one between Gaucín and Manilva, as they are currently used as alternative routes to the A-397.

"We all have a common objective: that the road is fixed as soon as possible," said Fernández. A "surprising" majority of authorities stand behind the manifesto, regardless of politics.

Malaga PSOE (socialist party) representatives joined the demand to fix the A-397 and asked the regional government to include municipalities from the Guadalteba district and the province of Cadiz in meetings regarding decisions about the road. They reminded the public that a project for the work was already awarded in 2021, without any execution since then.

Malaga PSOE also asked companies to improve public transport connections and for the costs of certain journeys to be covered.

The Partido Popular (conservative party) has also echoed the need for the A-397 to be repaired "as soon as possible, (...) as this situation is detrimental to many Ronda residents and people who live in the mountains".