11/04/2013 00:00
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STAFF REPORTER

PALMA
THE Council of Majorca set its seal yesterday on a highway building programme where the prime focus will be the addition of a third lane on the Palma ringroad and a bypass at Son Servera in the north-east of the island.

Highways councillor, Antoni Pascual said that the first stage of the bypass, between the MA-4040 and the MA-4026 will be built at a cost of 6.84 million euros and the MA-20 - the third lane of the ringroad between the Valldemossa road and the Genova tunnel - has been budgeted at 14.6 million euros. For accounting purposes, his latter figure will be split up over a three year period: 5 million in 2007, 7 million in 2008, and 2.6 million in 2009.

The most important modification made to the agreed text of the programme yesterday was the lack of any mention of the Balearic government who although they were key players in the initial agreement drafted in 2006, ceased to be signatories to a further development of the accords signed between the Council of Majorca and the central government ministry for Public Works in 2007.

It now just remains for central government to officially hand over management of the project to the Council of Majorca, so that they can put bids for these two major projects out to tender. Council sources said yesterday that if the programme remains on schedule, works could be started at the beginning of next summer.

The agreement, broaching roads projects envisaged in the Islands as far as the year 2017, is legally binding for 10 years. In all, 74 schemes are in the offing which are calculated to cost around 680 million euros.

Rush hour traffic on Palma's ringroad, both early in the morning and mid afternoon, has for years caused major queues. One aspect which doesn't help ease the flow of traffic is the narrowness of the lanes, especially at sections where a three lane stage of the ringroad narrows down to two. Delays are notorious at both Can Valero and Pont d'Inca. In the case of the latter, queues are made worse on the eastbound carriageway by a set of traffic lights situated a short distance from the ringroad exit, at the junction with calle Aragon. Tailbacks can result in vehicles queuing dangerously back onto the ringroad itself. A similar situation occurs at the access road to the “via cintura” from the Arenal motorway. A recently completed two-lane access road has alleviated the congestion.