Long-awaited third lane returns to Murcia's Costera Norte

The three-month project will restore the extra lane between Vereda de Fortuna and Avenida Alto Atalayas and complete the unfinished semi-roundabout at Calle Progreso

Drivers using Murcia's Costera Norte should have a little more room on the road by the end of the year, with work now underway to restore the third lane through Cabezo de Torres. The project began this Monday September 28 and is expected to take three months to complete. It covers around 1.1 kilometres between Vereda de Fortuna and Avenida Alto Atalayas, the road that provides access to Cabezo de Torres from the northeast. The extra lane is being restored to increase the road’s capacity and help reduce the traffic queues that can build up in the area. 

The work is also going to finish an incomplete section at the junction with Calle Progreso. A semi-roundabout has already been started here, but the work needs to be completed before the remaining lane can be opened fully to traffic.

The €129,792.89 project includes removing temporary structures from the road, cleaning and preparing the area and repainting the road markings. New safety barriers will also be installed to protect both vehicles and cyclists. At the semi-roundabout, workers will finish the path and road surface, including the different layers of asphalt needed to complete the road. The road markings will then be added and the semicircular planted area finished.

Murcia Mayor Rebeca Pérez visited the site as the work got underway on Monday.

“We continue resolving projects that have a direct impact on the day-to-day lives of people in Murcia. Our aim is for the infrastructure that already exists to work at full capacity and for residents to be able to travel around the municipality more comfortably and smoothly,” she said.

The latest work follows another improvement to the Costera Norte at Los Rectores. The third lane has recently been restored in this area after high-voltage electricity pylons and their overhead cables were removed. They had been taking up part of the space alongside the road and had effectively created a narrowing.

Their removal means drivers now have the full width of the road available again in Los Rectores. It is the first time the third lane has been continuous through this section since the Costera Norte was built.
Once the Cabezo de Torres works are finished, another section of the route will have its full three lanes back, with the project expected to be completed before the end of the year.

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Images:Ayuntamiento de Murcia