The Government delegate in Cantabria, Eugenia Gómez de Diego, today presided over the act of beginning the works of the third lane of the A-67 between Santander and Torrelavega, an action that has an investment of 172.9 million euros and that is part of the commitment of the Government of Spain and the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility with the improvement of the infrastructures of the region.
In his speech, Gómez de Diego highlighted the importance of this work, which will improve traffic fluidity and road safety in one of the main communication corridors of Cantabria. "This is one of the most important investments tendered by the General Directorate of Roads at the state level in 2023," said the delegate, who added that "it is a further demonstration of the commitment of the Government of Pedro Sánchez to Cantabria and the dynamism and strong investment activity of the Government in our region."
The tender for actions in the state road network in Cantabria amounted in 2023 to 257 million euros, a figure that, according to Gómez de Diego, "contributes to the economic dynamism of the region, due to the contribution also of our companies that are necessary during the execution of the work, and continue adding employment in a country, Spain, which this March has reached an historic milestone such as the 21 million people working".
Other ongoing projects
The Government delegate has also highlighted other projects under way in Cantabria promoted also by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility headed by Óscar Puente, such as the tender for the project to build the Alar del Rey-Reinosa section for an amount of almost 20 million euros, which marks a "very important" milestone on Cantabria's road to high speed; the improvement of the La Hermida Gorge; the grounding of the train tracks in Torrelavega; and the promotion of the Proximity Plan.
Gómez de Diego has emphasized the Spanish Government’s commitment to transparency and accountability. "We want citizens to know the meaning of investments, the opportunities they generate, what is done with their taxes and also the difficulties to which projects of such importance are subjected," he explained.
Start of works
Today’s event, in addition to the delegate, the Minister of Public Works, Roberto Medio, also counted on the participation of the State Road Demarcation in Cantabria.
With this project, a third lane will be built in both directions along 13 kilometers, between Polanco and Bezana. In addition, the layout will be modified, expanding the radii of the curves, widening the edges and enlarging the median. In this way, the route will be much straighter and will gain in visibility, thus improving road safety.
As for the execution of the works, the work will focus this year on the outer margins of the motorway, gaining width on the sides to be able to subsequently intervene on the trunk of the vial. Likewise, throughout the process the motorway will be kept open to traffic, and if necessary, it will be carried out at night time to minimize the affectations to users.
Martínez also stressed that this project will be the first in Spain to incorporate the BIM (Building Information Modeling) methodology in a civil project, both in the modeling phase of the project and in the construction phase. This methodology allows to optimize the resources both in both phases of the project and in the subsequent maintenance of the infrastructure.