PALMA´S NEW RING ROAD TAKES SHAPE

By Humphrey Carter WORK on the second phase of Palma's new ring road should start in either September or October with the plans for the project being presented for public consultation yesterday. This second phase, which will swing round from the Marratxi shopping complex to the Valldemossa road will be the only phase of the entire project which will involve the construction of a completely new stretch of road. The plans were unveiled by Balearic Transport and Public Works Minister, Mabel Cabrer, who said that, providing there are no major objections and set backs, this second phase should be completed in a period of 18 months and will carry some 70'000 vehicles per day. Any private or independent objections to the project should be submitted within the next month while the various local councils affected have two months to lodge any complaints. The Minister said that this second phase will cost 33.6 million euros, 505.000 of which has been set aside for environmental recuperation and landscaping projects, “we'll be repairing all the old dry stone walls as we go and Majorcan plants will line the central reservation,” the minister stressed yesterday. The four-lane stretch of motorway will have four exits leading to and from Bunyola, s'Indioteria, Polígono Son Castelló and the Valldemossa road as well as a secondary link to the Soller road. The 49 hectares needed for the project will run across 100 private properties, the owners of which have four weeks to lodge any objections. She explained that compensation for land owners ranges from six euros per square metre of rural land to 600 euros per metre of development land, amounts similar to compensation offered in Llucmajor and Inca. However, the minister said that a second ring road is “absolutely necessary” for Palma in order to ease traffic congestion and provide drivers who do not wish to enter the city centre, on their way to the university or the airport for example, an alternative. This second phase will in fact be one of the busiest, carrying 22 percent of all the traffic currently handled by the via centura. Cabrer also pointed out that the public consultation period for the Inca to Manacor motorway, which has attracted a flood of objections, closes on January 20.