New motorways, including the stretch of the Autovia de Noreste between Calasparra and the Vento de Olivo, have been shelved indefinitely by the regional government due to current financial difficulties.
Although the regional government has declared it wants to construct the motorways it has announced that the weight of traffic on the current road systems does not justify the expense.
Traffic between Caravaca and Venta de Olivo is currently 5,284 vehicles daily and between Venta de Olivo and Jumilla is 4,151 vehicles a day. An increase of 5% is anticipated when the new motorway is in operation.
The regional motorway project, which would complete the ring around the region (see graphic), will cost 750 million euros. The regional government had already broken the project up into 15 stretches of 10 kilometres in order to utilize a payment system based on a German model which would reduce current costs although the final bill would be higher.
Last October the motorway projects were postponed until May this year however work on the Caravaca to Calasparra stretch was expected to begin in 2012 with a completion date of 2014. This project, along with the other two motorways (Yecla – Santomera and Caravaca – Lorca) has now been postponed indefinitely.
