The PSOE in Torrevieja has advised that the national Government is progressing with the project of widening the N-332, after decades of failures by previous administrations.
The Government of Spain has announced that it has obtained a favourable environmental assessment report and that this means the possibility of continuing with the project.
In this regard, Bárbara Soler, spokesperson for the PSOE, has indicated that it is a report that studies possible effects that this work may have on human health, the atmosphere, the soil, geodiversity, flora and fauna, cultural heritage, the landscape, etc. “This procedure is obligatory and, now that it has been completed, we can continue with the project that is responsible for fitting the route into the few metres available” the spokesperson has stated.
In addition, the socialist has assured that these are procedures that, due to their technical complexity, can be extended over time and that for this reason the project has been developed in parallel to the environmental assessment “to accelerate the widening as much as possible”.
The Torrevieja Socialist Party began its campaign by maintaining that the widening was an absolute priority and the spokesperson has stated on numerous occasions that she has had several communications with personnel from the Ministry of Transport since the beginning of the mandate, to whom she has reiterated her gratitude for the attention received “despite their insistence”.
The Spanish Government is expected to invest 55 million euro to widen 4.47 km of the more than 7 that remain unwidened. “The rest will probably present an environmental impact due to the area through which the road runs but, fortunately, they are the ones with the least congestion” said Soler, who did not hesitate to conclude that the widening will become a reality “despite the PP, which is the only and exclusive culprit for the road being wedged between houses and businesses. And it will be carried out by a PSOE government”.
The socialist spokesperson has also given an answer to why it is the only stretch that has not yet been widened, something that she openly blames on the management that the PP has carried out in Torrevieja since the road was built in the 80s. “The PP chose to break the law to favour, for whatever reasons, the interests of the promoters and owners instead of those of the citizens. The PP’s commitment has always been to build at the expense of everything else” says Soler.
According to the socialist, “up to 100 metres of land measured horizontally from the outside of the road should have been left unoccupied, but in Torrevieja the construction of houses was allowed just 25 metres away, despite the repeated warnings from the General Directorate of Roads, and that decision has been suffered by the citizens who are forced to drive on a single lane on a road with an enormous traffic density and very little road safety”.
Likewise, Soler has not missed the opportunity to link this news with the statements made by several PP mayors of Vega Baja last year in relation to the temporary free toll announced by the Ministry of Transport for the AP-7 toll on the Alicante ring road section. The leaders considered that it meant marginalisation and disregard for Vega Baja that the sector between Montesinos and Zenia was not included. The secretary general of the Torrevieja socialists has explained that the responsibility lies with the Partido Popular itself “which was the one who established that this and other roads were toll roads”.
The spokesperson states in her publication that the motorway concessionaire company obtained the award in 1998 for a period of 50 years “with Aznar governing in Madrid and Zaplana in Valencia” and that other tolls have already finished their concessions, so it has been possible to declare them free. However, this toll, which is one of the most expensive in Spain despite its mere 13 km, was built at the height of the real estate boom and will have a concession in force until 2048. “The company itself took legal action against socialist projects that were betting on free roads such as the widening of the N-332 between Guardamar and Torrevieja and Torrevieja Pilar de la Horadada” said the socialist.
For all this, Soler describes as “ridiculous” that the PP, “in the face of the citizens”, incessantly demands that the Spanish Government widen the national highway and declare the motorway free of charge, “when these are problems that they have caused by choosing to favour private interests”.
However, the spokesperson concluded that “while the PP is dedicated to trying to confuse the citizens, from the PSOE we will continue working for the public interest”.
