Costa Tropical Blog

Is this the way to Almeria? Well, possibly…. what we do know is that it is definitely part of the Motril phase of the autovia! Residents in the pueblos of Las Ventillas and Puntalon to the northeast of Motril have, over the past year, been dismantling their plastic tunnels and abandoning their smallholdings in the wake of the relentless onslaught of the autovia. Perhaps relentless is a little harsh, let’s just say inevitable. After all, the ‘long awaited’ autovia has been ‘planned’ in one form or another for many years. I understand it’s more of a case of ‘we need it, but not in my back/front yard’. So it seems a decision has been made by someone, somewhere and as with all such decisions there are bound to be winners and losers. In the first instance the losers will be the farmers who have lost their plastics, their rustic cortijos and smallholdings. Then there is the environmental impact.

Sitting east of Las Zorreras and south of Los Tablones used to be a lush, fertile valley with many different plantations attracting a whole host of wildlife. I regularly used to watch, cranes, herons and even an eagle or buzzard from time to time. Now, however, things are starting to look quite different as a huge brown scar cuts across the landscape towards Puntalon and on up into the hills north of Torrenueva. Those of you who regularly travel through Puntalon and on up towards La Garnatilla may have noticed structural works being carried out in the field north of the Nora packing station. This is because the autovia will pass over this road amongst others. The winners, no doubt, are the residents of Torrenueva happy to finally see preliminary work starting on what will essentially be the bypass they and many others have been waiting for. Other winners will be the tourism industry and the commercial sector as the autovia will provide far better transport access in and out of Motril (what, no more cones?!). This, in turn, should also help to provide more jobs for the area (for the unemployed cone men and the like) and potentially provide a substantial boost for the local economy. For this reason, Carlos Rojas, the Mayor of Motril, has vowed to keep the autovia development on track by making sure the constructors stay within the appropriate time framework and if they don´t, to ask the relevant difficult questions at central government level. There is also speculation amongst estate agents that the value of properties within the immediate vicinity of the autovia, i.e. within easy reach of the access roads, could increase by at least 25%. Incidentally, if any creative soul out there can come up with alternative lyrics for ‘This is the way to Amarillo’ but using Almeria and autovia we would love to hear from you!