Óscar Puente announces that all sections of the A-11 between Valladolid and Soria will be in service or in works in this legislature

• The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has announced that in the coming weeks the Government will authorize to tender the works of the section between Langa de Duero and Aranda de Duero for 212 million euros. • The sections of the A-11 between Quintanilla de Arriba – Olivares de Duero – Tudela de Duero, which are currently in execution, will be in service at the end of 2025. • The minister has announced that in 2024 new operators will enter the high-speed line between Valladolid and Madrid, which will allow the offer to improve and have better prices. • Óscar Puente has assured that the humanization of the internal round of Valladolid, VA-20, will soon be tendered for about 16.1 million euros, to boost active mobility. • It has ratified the commitment to the railway as a tool to achieve a competitive and sustainable economy and has announced advances in the U de Olmedo and the duplication of the road between Valladolid and León. • The Ministry has litigated investments for more than 676 million euros in the province of Valladolid since June 2018, more than triple that in the same previous period.

December 18, 2023.- The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has reiterated the commitment of the Government and the Ministry with the development of the A-11 motorway, as a high-capacity backbone of the Douro basin, territorial cohesion and the promotion of sustainable mobility. Thus, during an informative breakfast in Valladolid, the head of the Department has assured that the infrastructure is “advancing and will move decisively in the next two years.” Thus, all sections of the Douro motorway between Valladolid and Soria will be in service or under construction throughout the legislature, giving a new impetus to the execution of the road. In addition, it has announced that, soon, the contract for the humanization of the internal round of Valladolid, VA-20, will be tendered to promote active mobility with, for example, the construction of bike lanes.

During his visit to the Castilian city, where he also attended the takeover of the new government delegate in the territory, Nicanor Sen, the minister took the opportunity to announce the entry in 2024 of new operators on the line between Valladolid and Madrid, which will increase the offer and have better prices. Specifically, Óscar Puente has confirmed that Ouigo will operate two daily services between both cities and has advanced the arrival of Avlo, the low-cost company of Renfe, to Castilla y León when the new Avril trains between Gijón and Madrid start operating next year, as it will allow to increase relations.

Autovía del Duero

Regarding the progress on the A-11, Óscar Puente said that, in the coming weeks, the Council of Ministers will authorize to tender the works of the stretch between Langa de Duero and Aranda de Duero for 212 million euros (without VAT), once the project of construction of the stretch was definitively approved on December 1. This tender would be the second most important one carried out by the General Directorate of Roads in recent years, only surpassed by the Jove Road in Asturias.

The minister also explained that the sections between Quintanilla de Arriba – Olivares de Duero – Tudela de Duero, currently in execution with an investment that exceeds 200 million euros, will be put into service at the end of 2025. Thus, in 2024 there will be works underway on the road for more than 400 million euros.

The section of the A-11 between Langa de Duero and Aranda de Duero is inserted between two sections in service of the motorway: the variant of Aranda de Duero and the section between Langa de Duero and San Esteban de Gormaz. It is designed with two 3.5 m lanes per driveway, exterior arches of 2.5 meters, interiors of 1 meter and median of 10 meters. The length of the trunk of the motorway is 22.3 km, and three links are foreseen: de Langa de Duero Centro (p.k. 11+800), from Langa de Duero Oeste (p.k. 13+700), by Zuzones – La Vid (p.k. 20+250), and of Vadocondes (p.k. 28+350), which connects to the BU-930 road.

Óscar Puente has supervised today, on a visit, the works of the section, which are progressing at a good pace after having solved the problems that have arisen in the initial phases of its execution.

This Government has assumed the advance of this structuring axis, driving all its actions, so that at the beginning of the year 122 kilometers of the Valencia-Soria axis will be in service or in works, two of every three kilometers of its total length (182.5 km).

In this sense, since June 2018 the Government has put into service five sections of the A-11 in Soria, which add up to 49.7 kilometers, and which have led to the materialization of more than 285 million euros of investment in this motorway. At the same time, in August 2023 the works of the connection of the variant of Aranda with the N-122 in the environment of Castrillo de la Vega, among other performances, began.

In addition, work is being done on the administrative procedures prior to the tender of the service contracts of the projects that are pending the drafting of this corridor, in particular:

• Soria
  • Los Rábanos (A-15) – La Mallona
• Valladolid:
  • L.P. Burgos-Quintanilla de Arriba (Peñafiel variant), whose project will be tendered in 2024.
• Burgos:
  • Castrillo de la Vegas-L.P. Valladolid

Humanize the VA-20

Among the priorities of the minister is the commitment to healthy, sustainable and safe mobility that is accessible to all citizens. In this sense, the Ministry is going to tender the humanization works of the VA-20, the internal round of Valladolid, for 16.1 million euros, to enhance active mobility and promote a lower use of the private vehicle in the internal round of Valladolid, improving road safety and quality of life of neighbors.

The works will include the construction of a new cycle path (connected to the existing cycling network), the conditioning of new green areas and the introduction of measures to calm traffic on the crossing, reducing the maximum speed to 50 km/h; in addition to the improvement of the road and sidewalks.

In particular, it will operate on the double carriageway stretch with two lanes per 10.3 km carriageway between the connecting roundabout with the N-620a (on the Avda. de Burgos) and the opening roundabout of the VA-30 (near the Cerro de San Cristobal), both included. Once the works are finished, the section will be ceded to the City of Valladoli.

The intervention is included in the Recovery Plan, within the program of humanization of voyages, which plans to invest 105 million euros of European funds NextGenerationEU in promoting a more sustainable, inclusive and accessible urban environment.

Bet on the railroad

Within the framework of the commitment to decarbonized and safe transport, the Ministry maintains its commitment to the development of railway infrastructures such as the Atlantic Corridor, an essential axis to consolidate a sustainable future, ensure the competitiveness of our economy and advance in the fulfillment of the objectives of sustainable development, as defended by Minister Óscar Puente.

Thus, the ministry is moving forward to meet the 2030 deadline committed to the European Union for the development of the Atlantic Corridor. In particular, more than 34.34 billion euros of investments have already been executed, 70% of the actions programmed. And only in these five and a half years (since June 2018) has an average of 1,000 million euros been executed annually.

In view of the immediate future, the objective is to accelerate the development of the Corridor, which last November registered a great milestone with the inauguration of the Variant of Pajares between León and Asturias. This objective will be achieved thanks to European funds, with which 1.25 billion euros will be injected.

In addition, in order to improve rail connections and the permeability of the network in Castilla y León and boost the demand for passenger and freight transport by train, the Ministry is working on the construction project of the high-speed direct rail platform Valladolid – Zamora (the U de Olmedo).

This branch, of 8 km, allows to connect the two lines so that traffic can circulate directly between Valladolid and Galicia, through Zamora. The objective is to promote high-speed traffic between North/Northeast and Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, allowing a train from Palencia, León, Burgos, Asturias, Basque Country or Barcelona to access the Madrid-Galicia line, and vice versa.

Likewise, the Ministry of Transport is making progress in doubling the route between Valladolid and León to expand its capacity and respond to the traffic increases planned with the entry into service of the Asturian corridor and the Venta de Bathrooms-Burgos line. To expand the capacity, actions are being carried out that involve an initial investment of 76 million euros, such as the tender in 2023 of the works of duplication of the standard width road north of Valladolid–Campo Grande to the north node of Valladolid–Variant East and the section RAF Palencia–Bifurcación Vilecha AV or of electrification of the Palencia–León Line.

Bet on Valladolid

The commitment to the development of infrastructures to promote social and territorial cohesion is reflected in the high investment activity of this government in the region. Thus, this Government, since June 2018, has litigated actions for more than 676 million euros in the province of Valladolid, which means multiplying by 3.5 times (+484 M€) what litigated in the same previous time period: Roads, 326 million euros (4.2 times more), Railways, 329 million euros (3.3 times more) and Airports, 21 million euros (5 million more).

At the level of Castilla y León, the Ministry has litigated investment actions for more than 3,038 million euros, which means increasing by more than 1,020 million the litigated in the same previous time period: Roads 1.288 billion euros (+84% variation with respect to the same previous PP period), Railways 1.673 billion euros (+32%) and Airports 65 million euros (+96%, almost double).

This amounts to more than 550 million euros per year in infrastructure in Castilla y León since June 2018.