Autumn start for Almeria’s renewed AVE project

WORK on Almeria’s AVE high-speed connection was halted three years ago. Spending cuts by the central government in Madrid instead redirected investment in high-speed infrastructure to other parts of the country.
The AVE should arrive in the provinces of Cadiz, Granada, Murcia, Castello, Burgos, Palencia, Leon, Zamora and Salamanca this year but Almeria is not on the list.
 Although the Almeria-Murcia AVE was included in three successive budgets, the province has not seen the colour of Madrid’s money and the commercial importance of the line prompted representatives from Almeria’s leading businesses and companies to call for renewed investment. There was even a private conversation with Mariano Rajoy when the president visited the Aguadulce Conference centre last October.
Their efforts paid off and the result was an announcement in March that the Ministry of Public Works was putting the 12.5 kilometre Pulpi-Cuevas del Almanzora section of the line up for tender. The bids have now been examined and the contract awarded but with the summer break approaching, work will not commence before September at the earliest.
This is the only stretch of track that is likely to be built in the near future. The 10 kilometres between Cuevas del Almanzora and Vera, which will eventually link the six sections of track located entirely within Almeria Province have yet to go to tender. Only two sections of the Murcia-Almeria AVE line have been completed and no allocations are expected to reach Murcia from the central government this year.