So far, 14 construction companies have come forward with their bids for the Alpujarra road-improvement contract from the A-44 to Lanjarón.
The first section for road improvement will be between the Tablate Bridge (next to the abandoned village of that name) and the bottling plant for Lanjaron waters.
With a budget of 11m euros, the improvement work will entail the elimination of around 20 bends (shortening the road by 1.3 km) and the widening of the existing road. From there, the second phase will take in the rest of the road to Lanjarón.
The Minister for Public Works (Promotion) Marifrán Carazo, said that they are delivering on the pledge to provide the Alpujarra with a decent access road, “which the county very much deserves.”
The A-348, which currently handles around 3,600 vehicles, nine percent of which are heavy-goods vehicles, is only five metres wide with hardly any hard shoulder along the way. After the work is completed it will consist of two lanes (single-lane traffic) both 3.5 metres wide, 1-metres wide hard shoulders and 60cm-wide berms (unpaved, roadside strips).
From the accompanying photo you can see the abandoned village of Tablate on the left of the photo and the junction in the centre ground. You can actually see by the colour of the tarmac on the right where the work will commence.
(News: Lanjaron, Alpujarra, Granada, Andalusia)