Council focusing on secondary roads and not major projects

Accident black spots one focus for investment

Investment will include roundabouts to eliminate accident black spots. | J.B.

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma28/11/2020 12:22

The Council of Mallorca is not planning any major road building projects in 2021. Agreement in 2019 between the three parties which govern the Council - PSOE, Més, Podemos - had in any event ruled out there being much by the way of major projects. An exception was the Via Conectora in Palma, but work on this between Son Ferriol and Coll d'en Rabassa will not commence next year.

The bulk of the spending next year will be for improving the secondary network of roads and eliminating accident black spots. The councillor for mobility, Ivan Sevillano, says that there is a "clear commitment" to shelve major projects that consume land and which "imply an incentive to increase the number of cars". "We are focused on a different model of investment in the secondary network, which has been neglected for years."

These projects include some roundabouts, e.g. for access to the Raixa finca and the Inca-Manacor road and its Muro and Costitx intersections, where accidents occur all too frequently. Others are roads in Ses Salines, the Soller-Llucalcari road, the mountain road in the area of Gorg Blau and the connection between Inca Hospital and the centre of the town.

The roads and infrastructure department at the Council has the second highest budget of all departments - just under 100 million euros.

For lighting, the investment is trebling to 2.1 million euros. LED lights will replace old ones. There is to be spending of 85,000 euros on the plan for car parks that are away from urban centres, while two million euros are to be spent on the fifth ITV (MOT) centre. This will be in Calvia. Next month, the mobile ITV centre, a temporary solution to reduce appointment waiting lists, will come into operation.