Rush hour traffic jams, the order of the day at a dozen hotspots in Malaga province

Ignacio Lillo, María Albarral, Julio Portabales, José Rodríguez Cámara, Lorena Cádiz, Eugenio Cabezas and Antonio J. Guerrero

Málaga

Friday, 18 October 2024, 16:01

Tailbacks are stretching out like a plague along the access roads to the main municipalities in Malaga province. With the boom in tourism, the local economy doing well and the increase in population, road connections around the province are simply becoming too busy. Besides the access roads into Malaga city from the surrounding suburbs, the limited road network is having to deal with a dozen other rush-hour hotspots.

The worst traffic jams build up on the access roads into Marbella, both from San Pedro Alcántara and Mijas, but there are also queues in the Guadalhorce valley, the rest of the Costa del Sol, Rincón de la Victoria, Vélez-Málaga and Antequera. In addition to the increase in road traffic following the pandemic, there is a lack of high-capacity public transport to ease the load. There is no train service in most of the large towns and the metropolitan bus lines are insufficient. If public transport were better, then maybe more drivers would leave their cars at home. This is the difficult scenario that thousands of Malaga residents in the province have to deal with every day when they have to travel to their place of work or study.

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One of the most problematic spots for traffic jams in the province is the stretch of the A7 between Marbella and San Pedro Alcántara. There is not a day that goes by without traffic jams forming there; more than 100,000 vehicles use the road every day with an increase in high season.

What is unusual about the problem around Marbella is that the jams are not just in one direction as is often the case in many towns and cities. Traffic builds up to the same degree on the Malaga-bound and Estepona-bound carriageways. Although peak times are early morning and late afternoon, in this case slow-moving traffic is always present on this road.

Another of the most congested areas in Marbella is the main road into Puerto Banús. The roundabout is jammed on a daily basis and long queues of vehicles form, often in addition to those in San Pedro.

The other side of the town, closest to Mijas, also has its traffic issues. Queues build up from Elviria as well as in the vicinity of Los Monteros and the Costa del Sol hospital. From approximately 7.30 to 10am queues form in the direction of Estepona, while they build up in the opposite direction (towards Malaga) in the late afternoon. It is clear that these are mainly road users who live in the nearby residential developments and commute to work in Marbella and the surrounding area.

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The A-357, the road that connects Malaga city with the Guadalhorce valley, has become a critical point of congestion in the province, with a daily traffic tally of more than 45,000 vehicles according to DGT data (Spain's Directorate-General for Traffic). This saturation affects both workers and local residents who use this road to travel between Malaga and inland areas, causing significant delays.

Among the most problematic stretches of road are the access points to the city, especially the junction with the A-7 where traffic builds up at peak times. In addition, and despite the improvements that the Junta carried out in the previous term of office, there are still problems on the access roads to Malaga's TechPark (PTA), a business park and hi-tech centre with 25,000 employees. The TechPark generates a high volume of traffic during the early hours of the morning and at the end of the working day, especially between 7 and 9am and again between 4 and 6pm. Similarly, residential growth in towns such as Cártama and Pizarra has also increased the demand on this road, as many inhabitants use it to access Malaga.

Another factor contributing to congestion is the volume of HGVs transporting goods to and from the industrial estates. These vehicles slow down traffic on several stretches, especially at the exits to logistics areas like the Guadalhorce industrial estate, causing major tailbacks.

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Without leaving the Guadalhorce area, the municipality Alhaurín de la Torre has its own problems. One of the main entry and exit roads for this town is the A-404 with a high volume of traffic (the town hall estimates that 35,000 vehicles use it daily). The road has been widened between the exit to the Hiperronda (outer ring road) and the roundabout on the Churriana road.

However, from there into the town it is single lane in each direction, which generates traffic jams and slow-moving traffic at practically any time on weekdays. This means that the road through the district of Zapata has become an alternative route out of town for city traffic without having capacity to handle the traffic burden.

Alhaurín de la Torre council is calling on the regional government to widen this section to two lanes as soon as possible and to undertake other projects, such as the Vial Metropolitano Distribuidor Oeste (a new road to the city through its industrial estates) or the link road to the TechPark.

Currently the local council is also demanding that work start on the new northern access road to the airport and a link to the Guadalhorce local train line (C2). Its final demand is that bus services between towns and the city be increased.

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Other Costa del Sol towns also have their own problems. Torremolinos suffers bottlenecks on roads linking with the motorway junctions, especially in Calle Costa Rica. While the roundabout for motorway traffic at this point has sufficient capacity, the road then narrows, and there is no alternative other than to take the narrow road to Pinar de los Manantiales, the surface of which is in bad condition.

Improvements are being held up by the courts' halting of the last Torremolinos PGOU (town masterplan) and the lack of progress in the Intu retail and leisure centre project for this area. The plans announced in 2018 included the construction of new roads as well as the widening of the existing access road from one to three lanes.

Along with this issue, the Marcha Verde roundabout in El Pinillo represents another headache, both because of the accident rate and the heavy traffic that it is subjected to, given the growth of the population in this district.

Meanwhile, in Fuengirola, Avenida Clemente Díaz is a regular bottleneck, mainly at school and work start and finish times, but also for any event taking place in the town centre. The stretch between Muebles Benítez roundabout and the train station is the most contentious due to the long tailbacks.

This is where vehicles coming from the A-7 converge with those coming from the northern part of the town, which has grown substantially in residential terms in recent years. This generates a bottleneck several times a day.

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East of Malaga, the road communication problems between the Axarquía and the city are already chronic and getting worse in the absence of road and public transport alternatives. Despite being only a short distance from Malaga, getting there by car from Rincón de la Victoria is a daily ordeal for thousands of drivers who live in this town and work or study in the city. This situation is a source of constant complaint, concern and political confrontation over much-needed infrastructure and urban planning.

Rincón council has already approved several motions, addressed to central government and the Junta, demanding urgent measures to relieve congestion on the A-7 motorway, while the long-awaited project for a rail or metro connection is being implemented. In the meantime, attempts are being made to promote the use of public transport, which is only possible by bus, in the midst of growing pressure from members of the public who are directing their anger towards both private operators and the town hall.

Further east in Vélez-Málaga, as well as sharing the traffic congestion on the A-7 from Rincón on the way into Malaga, the main problem area is on the A-356 ring road along the six-kilometre stretch from its junction with the A-7 to El Trapiche crossroads. In recent months it has worsened as a result of the work under way to remodel the road to Torrox, which has eliminated the other exit from Vélez to the coastal area of Torre del Mar and Caleta de Vélez.

The traffic jams stretch for kilometres between the roundabouts, especially early mornings and at midday. Added to this is the flow of lorries heading to the Parque Tecnoalimentario, where some 20 companies have already set up, and to the head office of the largest subtropical agro-food cooperative in the country - Trops - also in El Trapiche.

The project to widen this section of road has been delayed for over a decade and has not even been started. Responsibility for its completion rests with the Junta de Andalucía but, despite promises from both PSOE and PP when leading the regional government, nothing has been done. In mid-2022, the process was restarted for a project valued at almost 30 million euros, but it has yet to begin.

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Inland there is no escaping the traffic queues. In Antequera the trickiest part of town is the old Malaga-Granada road between the site of the dolmens and the access to the town centre, a road with only one lane in each direction.

This is where school traffic, buses to and from nearby towns, plus workers entering and leaving the logistics area, can add up to 2,000 vehicles in a matter of minutes, causing tailbacks from the Lozano roundabout to the roundabout at the entrance to the town centre.

This is compounded by the residents of La Quinta or those going to the cemetery, who have to cross this road and this worsens the traffic jams, with vehicles using the hard shoulder and even the pavement to continue straight ahead.

This problem is intended to be improved with a roundabout to enable traffic to flow to all four exits, but the years go by and it is still pending, like so many other road improvements throughout the province.