The Calpe Town Council has agreed to request the Ministry of Public Works, through the Alicante Roads Unit, to build a roundabout at the southern access as a solution to the long-standing problem of lack of safety for pedestrians accessing the train station. This means that the construction of the pedestrian footbridge over the N-332, a project that the Ministry awarded in 2019 but which was put on hold after the winning company withdrew in 2020, will not go ahead.
According to the Councillor for Infrastructure, Juan Manuel del Pino, since then, Calpe Town Council has held several meetings with representatives of the Ministry of Development to speed up a much needed and long-awaited project in the municipality. It should be remembered that pedestrians currently accessing the train station and various residential areas in Oltà must cross the road, with the consequent risk that this entails.
Finally, a solution has been chosen that not only prioritises pedestrian safety but also aims to improve traffic flow at the southern entrance to the municipality. The proposal involves converting the current tunnel, built more than 40 years ago, into a passageway exclusively for pedestrians and bicycles, thus ensuring a safe route to the train station and the residential areas of Oltà. At the same time, there are plans to build a roundabout to organise and regulate the entry and exit of vehicles in an area where the existing infrastructure is already insufficient for the volume of traffic it supports.
‘What we are bringing to the plenary session is a formal request to the Ministry to draw up this project and carry out the works,’ said Juan Manuel del Pino, who considers this project ‘more favourable and important for the population than the footbridge’. He added that the request reminds the Ministry of Public Works that the land acquired by the City Council for the footbridge – a total of 5,176.78 square metres – is still at its disposal and can now be used for the construction of the roundabout.
The Councillor for Public Safety, Guillermo Sendra, said: ‘This is great news. We will go from having an obsolete and dangerous access point to having a roundabout that will eliminate the current dangers,’ and indicated that the cost of this project is similar to that of the footbridge.
The Councillor for Defendamos Calpe, Toni Tur, agreed that the southern access to Calpe ‘needs a solution because it is dangerous and third world to see people crossing from the station to the national road’.
For his part, the spokesperson for the PP municipal group, Miguel Crespo, pointed out that this new infrastructure proposal is ‘necessary and vital and deserves every effort on the part of this corporation’.
The mayoress of Calpe, Ana Sala, stated that: ‘the most important thing of all is that the Ministry is clear that this access needs improvement and there is a willingness to draft the project and make it a priority. And this is going to happen sooner than we think’. She added that work will continue to make the project a reality as soon as possible.