The Estepona Town Hall has been waiting for two years for a viability study promised by the Ministry of Transport in 2024 to create a new access route to and from the A-7 motorway. The existing A-7 has faced significant congestion due to the area’s growing population and influx of visitors. Estepona, in particular, is experiencing severe traffic delays at access points, especially near the junction leading to Avenida Juan Carlos I, one of the town’s main roads. This situation has worsened over time, raising safety concerns for motorists due to the traffic build-up.

The Town Hall has long proposed a new access point either through La Lobilla or Cuesta de Ronda. This plan was presented by Mayor José María García Urbano during a 2024 meeting in Madrid with officials from the Ministry. Following years of requests from the local government, the mayor secured a commitment from ministry representatives to consider the issue and potentially commission the viability study by the end of 2024. During this meeting, the mayor expressed his willingness to collaborate by covering the project’s costs and construction, pending necessary approvals from the Ministry of Transport.

However, two years later, the Town Hall has yet to receive any updates on the proposal, despite repeated inquiries for information. The mayor considers this project a “priority and necessity,” especially given the traffic challenges presented by the A-7, which has become inadequate to handle the volume of vehicles, particularly during the summer and holiday periods. The demand for a new access point has been a long-standing request from residents and aims to alleviate congestion at existing entry and exit points.

In August of last year, the Town Hall requested another meeting with officials from the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, but this request has not yet been addressed.

Estepona has seen significant population growth in recent years, becoming the fastest-growing city in Andalusia and the second in Spain, according to the National Institute of Statistics, with its population reaching 80,000. This situation makes the implementation of the new access point urgent, as it is solely dependent on the central government and would help alleviate current mobility issues.