The mayoress of Calp, Ana Sala, and the councillors of Town Planning, Juan Manuel del Pino, and Traffic and Road Safety, Guillermo Sendra, held a technical meeting yesterday at the Provincial Road Service of the Ministry of Transport to discuss the construction of the footbridge over the N332 and the improvement of access to Maryvilla.
In the case of the footbridge over the N332, the project is at a standstill following the resignation of the company awarded the contract in 2020. The Territorial Service explained to the Calpe representatives the situation of the project's administrative procedure and the obstacles that have caused the delay, such as the administrative disputes between the Ministry and the company awarded the contract, which in turn is delaying the new tender.
It is worth remembering that in September 2022, the plenary session of the Calp Town Council agreed to ask the Ministry of Transport for the competences and funding for the execution of this project, works considered urgent and much demanded in the municipality.
However, a global solution to the traffic problems of the southern access to the municipality is now being proposed, a solution not only to pedestrian traffic through the footbridge but also to vehicle traffic through the access and exit tunnel to Calp. This tunnel was built more than 40 years ago and is currently insufficient for the traffic density in the area.
As an initial step, in the coming months, the Provincial Road Service will carry out a preliminary study on the traffic in this area of the N332 in order to propose possible solutions. In addition, the local government is already preparing a meeting with the Director General of Roads in Madrid to try to speed up the procedures in this area.
On the other hand, the local government insists on the construction of a legal access to Maryvilla. At present it is not possible to enter from the N-332 to this urbanisation because there is a continuous line which forces drivers to travel several kilometres to make a dangerous change of direction. In the same way, residents of Maryvilla are not allowed to access the Nacional in the direction of Altea, so they have to go to the northern roundabout in Calp to reach their destination. In addition to this, there are sometimes violations that occur with the risk to road safety.
As a possible solution, the municipality of Calp is proposing to the Ministry the construction of central lanes in the PK 165+800 of the N-332 in the municipality of Calp which will allow these accesses, for which the road will have to be widened in that section.
"We will continue to insist on the need for help from the competent administration to improve road safety on the southern access to the municipality, we will take up the footbridge project again and we will go to Madrid to insist on the need for an immediate solution," said the mayoress.