The delegate of the Government in Aragon, Rosa Serrano, visited on Tuesday the works of conditioning of the 12 kilometers of the N-260 road that run through the valley of the Ésera in the region of Ribagorza. Serrano, accompanied by the Head of State Road Demarcation in Aragón and the director of the works, has stressed that the infrastructure is going to be transformed into a “safer and more respectful route” guaranteeing the economic and tourist development of the entire environment. In addition, MITMA is studying to complete the performance with a new tunnel in the Congosto de Ventamillo that will save this natural place. An order of study is already in place and it is planned to tender for the drafting of the project, which will include the necessary actions to obtain a new Environmental Impact Statement (DIA).
The overall budget of the works currently being carried out reaches 75.7 million euros including all the actions aimed at ensuring a “more comfortable and fluid” driving with the expansion of the platform of the N-260 from the current 5.5 meters to 8 meters, minimizing the occupation and impact in the most conflictive areas that run next to the Ésera, through the construction of cantilevers supported and anchored to the rock. In this way, the crossing of two heavy vehicles or buses will be facilitated.
The project that is currently being worked on includes the execution of two tunnels of 265 meters and 540 meters in length respectively, whose civil work (excavation, sustenance, waterproofing and drainage) is practically finished, pending the execution of the lateral canalizations under the sidewalks and also the support facilities such as power supply, lighting, longitudinal ventilation, the network of hydrants and centralized technical management. In the longest step all the equipment will be completed with external barriers and traffic lights, megaphony, couplers, radiant cable, emergency posts, pressurization ventilation of the evacuation gallery and collection of pollutant discharges.
The director of the works stressed that all the conditioning has been designed “with special attention to environmental conditions and in such a way that the affections to the users during the execution of the works are as minor as possible”. In view of the next advances, it has announced that a total cut of the road is planned between April 11 and June 23, inclusive.
Despite the inconvenience it may cause, the delegate, Rosa Serrano, has expressed that at all times “she has been in contact with the associations and municipalities of the area, informing them of the actions that are being carried out and trying to agree on cuts, inconveniences and other adversities.” This was very necessary when in April 2021 there was a large slip at the entrance of the first tunnel, forcing the total cut of the road, and which led to the execution of an emergency work to put the road back into service.
In turn, in the Congosto de Ventamillo, an emergency work has been carried out as a result of the detachment and fall of large blocks from high altitude that affected the platform of the road and broke the wall of support of masonry existing there.
MITMA commitments
The government delegate recalled during the visit that the commitment of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (MITMA) in the province of Huesca “is undeniable”. That is why he explained that he is “working intensively” on the improvement of this same N-260 road as it passes through the region of Sobrarbe or in the stretch of the N-230 between Alfarrás and Sopeira (of approximately 75 kilometers) to achieve the conditioning as road 2+1, having already been awarded the drafting of the Benabarre-Sopeira project and being foreseeable that in the coming months the drafting contract of the construction project from Alfarrás to Benabarre will be tendered. “This is a formula that allows us to minimize environmental damage and speed up the execution procedures, a necessity that has been transferred to us by the neighbors of the area,” explained Serrano.