Outraged drivers tell how the closure of the Ronda-San Pedro road due to landslide will massively affect their daily commute

Vanessa Melgar

Ronda

Tuesday, 11 March 2025, 13:49 | Updated 18:19h.

The workers who commute daily to towns on the Costa del Sol from the natural beauty spots around Ronda, some of which also extend into the provinces of Cadiz and Seville, are outraged and distressed by the situation they now face: having to get up even earlier, drive more kilometres, take detours and, on top of that, have to spend more money on petrol or diesel and vehicle maintenance. All of this just to get to their place of work because of the rocks and earth that have cut off the A-397 road between Ronda and San Pedro Alcántara in the Benahavís area. In addition, they arrive home later and it is practically impossible to achieve a half-decent work-life balance.

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"It's just car, work, sleep... Some people might as well just go on the dole," said Cristóbal Román, who has been working on the coast as an electrician for 26 years, commuting daily from Ronda. This Monday he had to take the road from Gaucín to Sabinillas. "It took me between two and two and a half hours. Through Coín I think it's worse, because there is more heavy goods vehicle traffic and more traffic in general. The big problem will come in April when tourism comes to the coast, everything will be rammed," said this Ronda resident, who thinks that the situation is even more serious for workers commuting from towns like Setenil de las Bodegas, Villarmartín and Grazalema in Cadiz, or from Montecorto: "Their nearest place was via San Pedro and now they have a huge detour, it's a four-hour journey, one way and another four hours back... More than one of them will consider becoming unemployed, they'd earn more money, it's eight, nine hours by car a day... It's like going from Ronda to Barcelona, it's crazy, half a day driving and half a day working."

For this Ronda resident the collapse of the Ronda-San Pedro road "is a big job". It also demonstrates, in his opinion (one that is shared by his colleagues), the lack of decent road communications in the Serranía de Ronda. "If we had good communication links things would change, we're here in the 21st century and we don't have good communications, it's sad. I have been going down that road for 26 years and all they do is change the asphalt, with the traffic that it has," he concluded.

"The roads we have, in general, are terrible"

Oscar Morales, who works as a plumber in the La Zagaleta area, agrees. "This morning [last Monday] we took the road to Gaucín with an impressive amount of traffic. Normally it takes us 45 minutes to get there and we've spent two and a quarter hours! The roads we have, in general, are terrible. Let's see if they can finally make a good repair to the road between Ronda and San Pedro, the only thing they do is cover it with asphalt as they did last time."

Sandra De Figueroa from Ronda, works as an orderly and driver at the health centre in San Pedro. She has the possibility of accommodation in this town, so she has travelled there. "I came last night (Sunday) knowing about the road to San Pedro. I do 12-hour shifts and for me it's incompatible to drive two hours, work 12 hours and come back. It wouldn't even give me time to sleep... Let's see what the future holds, the Coín road is crazy with the traffic, and the Gaucín road is terrible, it can't take that much traffic," she said. She then pointed out that this Monday "many people arrived late for work and there are many colleagues who don't know what they are going to do." She added that renting on the coast "is very expensive and you can't spend your salary on it or go a week without seeing your family."

For her the landslide on the Ronda-San Pedro road "was a foregone conclusion, they have done nothing to this road, just remove potholes and touch it up from time to time, being a mountain road, with the rains and so many rocks."

"Urgent need for infrastructure and investment"

Antonio Mariscal, of the Plataforma Autovía para Ronda YA, a protest and lobby group that has been demanding a motorway connection for Ronda and the surrounding area from the Junta de Andalucía, highlighted the failure of the Junta de Andalucía to improve the Ronda-San Pedro road. In general this protest group makes demands for improvements in road communications for the whole area, as does the business association Apymer for the areas of Ronda, Campillos and Guadalteba. Its secretary, Antonio Palma, asked the Junta to speed up repairs to this road where feasible as it is seriously affecting commuters, businesses and the tourist sector in Ronda and surrounding area.

"This only goes to show the urgent need for infrastructure and investment that we have; this road had promised improvements that have not been implemented. We need someone to understand the urgency for the area in terms of investment and infrastructure," said Palma.

Ronda's mayor María de la Paz Fernández also says that this situation "will not be fixed from one month to the next." She is concerned about the situation and the consequences for Ronda's economy. She has summoned the mayors in the area to a meeting this Tuesday.

Parauta's mayor Katrin Ortega is another person affected by this situation as she lives between the village and San Pedro. "It used to take me 40 minutes from San Pedro to Parauta and now I have to travel two hours, there are times when I have to go back and forth during the day because my children go to school in San Pedro, but I have my house in Parauta and my parents in San Pedro, who don't work and help me. On the days I go to Parauta I will stay there for two or three nights, it's a matter of organisation," she commented.