The People's Party (PP) of Salamanca called on Spain's national government on Monday to immediately approve pending projects so it can urgently tender and carry out a full rehabilitation of the pavement on the A-62 motorway.
The demand was made by Ciudad Rodrigo mayor Marcos Iglesias, national deputies José Antonio Bermúdez de Castro and María Jesús Moro, and provincial deputy Gerardo Marcos. They described the infrastructure as vital for the province.
The PP leaders said the A-62 is in a deplorable state and has been completely neglected, with pavement that is potholed, patched and marked by sinkholes in several stretches. They said this poses a serious risk to road safety on a motorway used by around 28,000 vehicles a day, roughly 3,500 of them heavy trucks. They added that the problem becomes especially serious during the summer holiday return period, when traffic intensity rises sharply.
Years of stalled projects
The PP said it has spent years bringing initiatives before Spain's Congress of Deputies calling for a full rehabilitation of the most deteriorated stretches of the motorway. It said government responses show the projects have remained in the drafting phase for more than five years, a delay it called unjustifiable given that such documents are usually completed in under a year.
Questions over 40 million euros
The PP also criticized PSOE's provincial secretary, David Serrada, and the Socialist spokesman in Ciudad Rodrigo, Fernández Chanca, who a year ago announced an investment of 40 million euros for the structural rehabilitation of three stretches of the A-62 covering about 48 kilometers. The PP said that twelve months on, the projects still have not been approved and the works have not been tendered or started, and it demanded an explanation of what happened to the funds.
The party rejected the government's explanations for the delay, which pointed to project updates driven by rising fuel prices and storms earlier in the year. The PP argued these reasons do not justify the standstill, noting that similar rehabilitation works are being tendered and carried out in other provinces.
Call on minister Óscar Puente
The PP called on the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, and the central government to immediately approve the pending projects and proceed to tender and carry out the structural rehabilitation of the A-62. The party's leaders said they would not accept further delays, neglect or deception, and insisted the motorway's current condition puts the safety of drivers using it at risk.
