Estepona Awaits A-7 Access Study Two Years After Ministry Pledge

Estepona's Town Hall has been waiting two years for a promised viability study for a new A-7 access, crucial for easing traffic congestion

Estepona residents and property owners are facing increasing traffic congestion, particularly around the A-7 motorway access points. The Town Hall has been waiting for two years for a crucial viability study from the Ministry of Transport, a study that was committed to in 2024, to open a new access road to and from the motorway.

Growing Traffic Problems

The existing A-7 has been experiencing years of congestion due to a significant increase in the area's population and visitor numbers. Estepona, in particular, has seen considerable traffic problems at its access points from the A-7, especially the ramp leading to Avenida Juan Carlos I, one of the municipality's main arteries. These issues have intensified, leading to situations that pose a danger to road traffic on the motorway due to vehicle bottlenecks at this point.

The Town Hall's long-standing proposal involves opening a new access point in the La Lobilla area or via the Cuesta de Ronda. Mayor José María García Urbano presented this idea at a meeting in Madrid in 2024 with the Deputy Director General for Planning and Exploitation and the Head of the Roads Unit in Málaga. This meeting followed years of demands from the Estepona Council. At the time, the Mayor secured a commitment from the Ministry's representatives to analyse the problem and consider commissioning a viability study before the end of 2024. During this encounter, the Mayor also expressed the Town Hall's intention to collaborate by covering the project and construction costs, should the Ministry of Transport grant the necessary authorisations.

The Long Wait for a Viability Study

However, now, two years later, the Town Hall has received no news regarding the proposal, despite repeated requests for information. The Mayor considers this a "priority and necessary" matter, given the mobility problems on the roads and an A-7 motorway that is already insufficient to absorb the volume of traffic, especially during the summer and holiday periods. The idea of creating this new city access is a long-standing demand from citizens and aims to decongest the municipality's current entry and exit points.

Consequently, the Town Hall requested another meeting with officials from the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility in August 2025, but this request has not yet been addressed.

A Critical Need for Estepona

Estepona has experienced significant population growth in recent years, becoming the Andalusian city with the highest population increase and the second-highest growing city nationally, according to the National Institute of Statistics. The municipality now has 80,000 inhabitants, making the adoption of this measure urgent. This initiative, which depends exclusively on the central government, would alleviate existing mobility problems.