ARCHIVED - 1.16 million euros for major road repairs following the September gota fría

Work begins on roads which remain closed 7 weeks after the storm

Seven weeks after the gota fría storm which struck Murcia in mid-September the regional government department of Development and Infrastructures has begun the major repair and reconstruction work which is necessary on various of the roads which were worst hit by torrential rain and flooding.

Within a week of the rain stopping almost all of the roads belonging to the regional network which had been closed by flooding had been re-opened, but on four of them the damage was so great that prolonged closure has been necessary. The appropriate works projects have now been drawn up, though, and it has been determined that the investment needed to carry them out is budgeted at 1,164,500 euros.

The aim is to complete all of the reconstruction work by the end of the year, and this week the first of the projects began on the road between Pozo Aledo and La Puebla in the municipalities of Torre Pacheco and Cartagena, at a cost of 200.000 euros. On this road floodwater running down the Rambla del Albujón destroyed the road surface in various areas, at one point eroding a gully 30 metres long and 1 metre deep alongside it.

More repairs are necessary nearby on the RM-311 between El Albujón and Los Beatos (RM-311) and on the RM-F21 between Torre Pacheco and Los Martínez del Puerto, while in central Murcia reconstruction work is needed on the RM-423 in Abanilla, between Los Baños de Fortuna and Venta Collares, where a large sinkhole opened up after the road collapsed onto a drainage pipe.

Also still closed is the RM-F16 in Zeneta, close to the boundary with the province of Alicante, while work is also needed on roads which have been re-opened after minor damage was sustained. These include the RM-B19 between Cieza and Calasparra, the road to Pozo La Higuera in Lorca and others in Los Belones and Puerto Lumbreras.

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