ACCIONA inaugurates the A-44 highway section

Last May 21 ACCIONA Infrastructures inaugurated the Ízbor – Bélez de Benaudalla section of the A-44 Highway.

Present at the launch were José Blanco of the Ministry of Development, and Government of Andalusia delegate, Juan José López Garzón, along with several other authority representatives. ACCIONA Chairman & CEO, José Manuel Entrecanales, was also present, as was the Company’s Managing Director for Economics and Finance, Valentín Montoya, and the Managing Director of ACCIONA Infrastructures Pedro Martínez. Other ACCIONA directors also atended the ceremony, including Roberto Fernández López, Justo Vicente, Antonio de la Serna, Rafael Castillo, Gerardo Mochales, Purificación Torreblanca and Tirso Santos.

The initiation of this section completes the A-44 highway between Granada and Motril and opens a direct highway link from Granada to the Tropical Coast, thereby reducing the distance and the driving time.

The project required a €142 million investment for the 10km section, which passes through an area of complicated terrain that causes restrictive conditions to the section such as significant geotechnical difficulties due to the instability of some of the extremely steep slopes in the area.

With such a problematic terrain surface, it was necessary to carry out large-scale site clearing and landfill – excavations totalling 5.34 million and 2.72 million cubic metres of landfill. And, as the section is located against geologically active slopes with significant sliding, important geotechnical stabilisation measures were implemented in 80% of the slopes on the site.

The most characteristic elements of the section are the six viaducts that have a total length of 2.7 kilometres. This means that more than 25% of the stretch of the highway structure passes through valleys, ravines, rivers and the Rules reservoir.

The project includes two interchanges, the Ízbor interchange at kilometre point 1 (a diamond-type intersection with roundabouts) and the Vélez de Benaudalla interchange at kilometre point 9.4.

The requirements of the environmental impact declaration were met, including an archaeological assessment study prior to excavation, the environmental restoration of the banks of the rivers Ízbor and Guadalfeo, the canalization of the Ízbor, the rehabilitation of landfills, the inclusion of passageways for fauna, re-planting of slopes and the relocation of the pathway running from the Sierra Nevada to Malaga.