Advances in the repair of the road between Ronda and the Costa del Sol with the removal of rocks

The repair works of the A-397 highway, which connects Ronda with San Pedro Alcántara and has been closed to traffic since March 8 due to damage caused by storm Jana, will continue this week with the removal of unstable rocks located in the landslide area.

The Ministry of Development has added new personnel and now has twenty workers, most of them specialists in vertical work, who are repairing the damages on the main communication route between Ronda and the Costa del Sol seven days a week.

Recent efforts have focused on installing a containment mesh anchored at the highest part of the slope and a three-meter-high metal fence, to protect against potential rockfalls, as reported by the Ministry this Sunday in a press release.

The crane, weighing over 200 tons, previously used at this higher area has been removed, and in its place, a dirt ramp over the highway has been constructed to serve as an intermediate platform to continue with the cleaning and removal of unstable blocks in the lower area.

This ramp will allow access for new machinery, which will start from this Monday the mechanical removal of unstable rocks in the rest of the areas affected by the landslide. For this purpose, an excavator with a long-reach arm capable of extending up to 35 meters high will be used.

The head of Development, Rocío Díaz, has praised the "enormous deployment" both technical and human to stabilize the hillside as soon as possible, and from there, to begin the reconstruction of the viaduct.

"Urgent initial containment measures have already been adopted, and efforts are being accelerated to minimize the time until the highway can be reopened under full safety conditions," she added.

The repair work on the road, which handled traffic of about 9,000 vehicles daily, may last about six months, according to initial estimates by the regional government, which hopes to open one lane in four and a half months.

About 1,200 people, according to the National Police, demonstrated this Saturday through the streets of Ronda demanding urgent repairs to the A-397, and for the acceleration of the highway project with the capital of Malaga due to the "unsustainable" current situation regarding communications in the region.

The march, organized by the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises of the Ronda and Guadalteba regions (Apymer) along with the citizen platform 'Autovía Ronda Ya', took place almost a month after the closure of the A-397 due to a rockslide and the breakdown of a viaduct following heavy rains.

The total closure of this route towards the coast forces residents of the Serranía de Ronda to seek alternative routes that require much longer travel times, resulting in increased costs for companies and workers, and also affects tourism in Ronda from the coastal towns.