Junta accelerates landslide work on A-397 road to end Ronda's isolation from the Costa del Sol faster

A team of 20 people, including climbing specialists, and a 200-tonne crane are working to stabilise the mountain slope before the repair of the damaged section of viaduct can be tackled

SUR

Malaga

Monday, 31 March 2025 | Updated 03/04/2025 14:43h.

The Junta de Andalucía's regional ministry of public works is stepping up the pace of repair work on the A-397 Ronda-San Pedro road by working seven days week - weekends included - to stabilise the mountainside and repair all the damage caused by the particular storm that triggered this landslide.

This announcement came directly from the regional government in a press statement, in which it specified that repairs continue to progress with a team of 15 workers, including ground staff and climbers. The specialists are equipped to carry out working safely at height. The Junta has also brought in a 200-tonne crane, which has managed to reach the highest point from which the landslip started, some 100 metres above the mountain road.

Regional minister for public works, Rocío Díaz, stated that "all possible human and technical resources have been deployed to speed up the work as much as possible and to be able to reopen the road under full safety conditions as soon as possible."

"It is a tremendously complex job, working at height, where first we have to guarantee the stability of the slope and, once we have achieved this, we have to put all our efforts into repairing the road", said Díaz, who indicated that the work "does not stop for a single day, from Monday to Sunday" and that the 15 workers will be joined this week by an extra crew.

With these additional workers there will be "all the material and technical means possible for deployment of the land-retaining mesh", said Díaz. She added that "this boost will allow us to speed up the stabilisation work and bring forward the repair of the viaduct." In total, as of this week, there will be around 20 workers on site on the A-397 road.

A budget of 3.5 million euros

The repair work, which has a budget of 3.5 million euros, is being carried out in phases. Currently the Junta de Andalucía is immersed in the task of clearing away all the debris in the area that is still deemed unstable. This is being carried out by specialised personnel who climb up and down the shifting slope. In addition, a retaining mesh is to be anchored into the slope and will be installed at the highest part of this slope.

The crane that has been brought into service for these repairs serves as a support to the workers to lift up the necessary materials to where they need to stabilise the land so it slips no more.

Once these measures have been completed, an intermediate platform will be set up to house another high-reach machine so workers can more easily access the remaining parts of the landslide. In parallel, partial protection will be provided and some 400-tonne blocks deemed potentially unstable will be removed.

This will be followed by the construction of a new dynamic screen (a barrier that can absorb the energy from land movement) to protect against falling blocks of rock. At the same time as all this groundwork is being done on site, the regional ministry stated that it is finalising the design of the construction solution to repair the viaduct as quickly as possible.

The road from Ronda to San Pedro Alcántara (A-397) had to be completely closed to traffic due to the serious damage caused by Storm Jana on 8 March. The damage was so severe that an alternative route along the road itself was ruled out from the outset.

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