Council of Majorca moves to improve road safety in the Tramuntana

AT a cost of 10 million euros, the Balearic government has signed an agreement with the Council of Majorca to improve the safety of roads in the Tramuntana mountains, Council leader Francina Armengol said yesterday.

Of key priority in the construction programme, said Armengol, is the road between Andratx and Estellencs where subsidence caused a collapse of some 10 metres in March this year. It has remained closed to traffic ever since.

Regional President, Francesc Antich, who signed on behalf of the Balearic government, clarified yesterday that the 10 million euros was to repair “imperfections” in the road surface which had been caused by land subsidence. This, in turn, he said, has been provoked by extreme weather conditions or geological movement.

Another area covered by the improvement programme, said Antich, will be the repair of cave-ins on the Soller to Pollensa road in the municipality of Escorca. Separately, a study will be commissioned on the overall state of the road running between Andratx and Pollensa and what can be done to increase its stability and safety.

Armengol explained that an agreement is shortly to be signed with the Geological and Mining Institute, which through satellite technology, will be able to monitor and report on the state of roads in the Tramuntana mountains. “The roads are always on the move,” she said. “What we will be working on is eliminating risk to users,” Armengol said.

Ongoing improvement work will include repairs to road surfaces in general which have suffered as a result of the impact of snow and heavy rainfall in the mountains, she added.

Armengol emphasised the importance of the road repairs. It is work that has to be carried out with a great deal of care, she said, not least because Majorca is currently making an application to UNESCO to have the Tramuntana mountains listed as a World Heritage Site. “These roads are minor ones, and have to continue being so despite the fact they are heavily used,” she said.
Antich was quick to give assurances of the efficient co-ordination which existed between the Balearic government and the Council of Majorca to ensure the “best possible service” to the public. He claimed that 431 million euros is currently being spent on road building and maintenance programmes in the Balearics and that such investment creates jobs.

Because of this policy, said Antich, the Islands is one of the regions of Spain which is making the most headway against the economic crisis.
Meanwhile the government will be having to consider claims for compensation from bars, restaurants and cafés in Estellencs and other towns and villages in the Tramuntana which were “cut off from the rest of the world” after the potentially dangerous subsidence on the road from Andratx last March. Traders say the loss of business has been “crippling.”