Road without access points

[Sue James]

The Vera Cartagena toll road opened last month and that's great news for
anyone coming to the Vera-Mojacar area arriving at Murcia airport. We'd
discovered that the complete stretch was  open before we set off to Spain
but even armed with the knowledge missed the turn on the A7 - I spotted
Almeria in tiny writing just as we sped past. Luckily it wasn't far to the next
exit where we could turn around.

 

The situation is even worse at the Vera end. You cannot access the new road at the junction you leave it to enter the town. The road is only accessible if you are already on the Autopista del Mediterraneo so if you want to set off from Vera you have to use junction south of the town or join it at the northern exit and then travel one junction on the wrong road and do a U turn to get to one of the slip roads. Its very clumsy but we can't see that the situation is going to change.

 

Currently not all the junctions are operational - including our local Cuevas del Almanzora one - but nothing warns road users of this fact. The other drawback of the road is that its junctions are well away from the towns they serve - and no signs have as yet been provided so if you don't know the road has opened you are unlikely to use it.  And finally if you do leave the motorway part way along its route be prepared to feel lost. My example is the Calabardina exit - where the toll booth operator appears to have some other job that means he runs across the expanse of tarmac in the unlikely even a vehicle exits (by the way there are don't appear to be any payment card machines, coins are the default payment method) - the roundabout has three exits one goes up a steep hill with tight hairpin bends where you can appreciate why the motorway at this point goes into a 2km tunnel, another is to the eponymous (small) resort of Calabardina but it is 12 km down a recently metalled track that winds narrowly through plasticos for some kilometres before you join a road capable of letting two vehicles pass each other, the middle one is marked Camino and is a rutted agricultural track which simply crosses a field.

 

Personally I don't want more people to find this remote part of the Murcia coast so perhaps its a good thing that the new motorway is such a fiasco

 

Sue

 

 

[LesterOR]

Sue,

What a surprise that the new highway is so poorly engineered. I found
the highways in Spain to be remarkably well engineered, easy to drive,
and well-directioned. I guess they put the "B" team on this one!

Lester

[mike james (OAK)]

.>Sue,

What a surprise that the new highway is so poorly engineered. I found
the highways in Spain to be remarkably well engineered, easy to drive,
and well-directioned. I guess they put the "B" team on this one!

>Lester

>
Its not poorly engineered if you take into account the remarkable speed
with which it was built. One minute no motorway - next minute its there
complete
with some very big tunnels.
The poor access at most points is because the road is open and the tar isn't
quite dry.
I'm sure they will finish the access roads and put up signs but the lack of
a direct connection
at Vera seems to be by design.

However ----- I have to say that driving on a motorway that has virtually no
traffic
is great fun. I thought I was going much much to fast until a merc overtook
me doing at least 30mph more.......
Hope they don't start checking the timings on the toll tickets :-)

A wonderful new road but not quite finished.
mikej

[sue james]

Hi Lester

The road is amazingly engineered - it cannot fail to impress and being so
empty even the driver can enjoy the views out of the window. It is as a
commercial venture that is seems to be a failure. Having been for a walk
along a wild part of the Murcia coast we drove back to Vera for over 50
kilometres on the toll stretch around 7:00 pm and I counted the oncoming
traffic - 43 vehicles in total and that, I suspect, was a busy time. There
seemed to be much less traffic on the road when we drove to the airport on
Friday around noon. The toll booths have to be manned 24/7 and the toll
charges are much cheaper overnight!

Sue

[sue james]

Further to my post about the new Cartegena-Vera motorway and the wild part
of the coast it gave us access to, I've just become aware of the fact that
there are plans to develop 11,000 hectares of it into a development with
homes for 60,000 people, 22,000 hotel-beds, 5 golf courses and a 200-berth
marina. Development is due to start this year and take 15 years to complete.
Now the motorway does make sense - but I'm devestated by this news. There
are various campaigns to stop the development but the regional Murcia
government seems determined to go ahead. More information is currently on
http://theolivepress.es/content/view/462/42