The reopening of the AP-7 tunnel at Pilar de la Horadada will not occur this weekend. Pilar de la Horadada’s mayor, José MarÃa Pérez, verified this in a social media statement yesterday, Friday June 27th.
On June 15th, the mayor announced, based on information from Jesús Redondo, head of the General Directorate of Roads at the Ministry of Transport that manages this area, that the section could reopen this weekend, coinciding with the significant increase in traffic that occurs in July and the movement of thousands of people from Madrid and the Region of Murcia to the beaches along the Pilar de la Horadada coast.
Through a social media post, the councillor states that “seeing that we are entering the weekend during which the reopening of the AP-7 tunnel in the Alicante -Cartagena direction was scheduled, I have contacted the Ministry of Transport, the Valencia and Alicante road units, the government subdelegation, and the concessionaire company.”
He further says that he has finally been notified by the Ausur highway concessionaire, who has indicated that “work will continue through this last weekend of June and that next week, at the beginning of July, they will tell us something again.”
Pérez expressed his gratitude to “the Ministry of Transport and all the people who continue to work tirelessly to open the AP-7 tunnel to traffic as it passes through Pilar de la Horadada,” and we trust that the works will be completed as soon as possible so that the traffic jams, prolonged delays, and overloaded traffic in the town centre will end.
“We ask for the public’s patience and will keep you informed as we receive updates from Ausur or the Ministry of Transportation,” he added.
Sources from the Ministry of Transportation already warned, hours after Pérez announced the reopening, that it was uncertain whether the works would be completed by the last weekend of June. The mayor cited a Ministry official as a source for the announcement.
Accident
The truck accident on May 9th, which claimed the driver’s life, prompted the repairs.
The truck toppled and caught fire, impacting multiple safety systems in the tunnel. The work relates to these repairs, but the accident happened just as further works were about to begin, expressly to improve traffic safety on this segment, which, despite being part of a toll road, is located on a free section of the route. These works, worth €3.5 million, have been delayed until at least after the summer.
Traffic is now being redirected via National Highway 332 and, in certain circumstances, through the town centre of Pilar de la Horadada.
This tunnel, 800 meters long and with an average daily traffic of 26,000 cars in both directions, opened in 1999 alongside the Ausur freeway and will be operated until 2048 by a concessionaire led by significant Murcian firms.
N-332, which runs adjacent and is now used as an alternative, already has an average traffic volume of 10,000 vehicles.
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