Road bridge across A7 at Cancelada, Estepona removed overnight

SEVERAL months ago, a road bridge that straddles the A7 at Cancelada (Estepona) was discovered to have some major structural problems.
The road bridge very quickly became one way so that those heading from Cancelada towards Marbella could access the A7 but those who were travelling from Estepona had to drive on for several kilometres to come off at the Benahavis junction and drive back the same distance to get to Cancelada.
This caused considerable congestion at the roundabout with traffic from Benahavis backing up and the new traffic aiming to return to Cancelada adding to the problem.
Now after several months of apparent inactivity on the bridge which caused the Mayor of Estepona to write to the Highways Agency to demand that something be done to speed up the repairs, something has been done as between midnight and 8am on Sunday, May 30, the road was closed and the span of the bridge was removed which means that the hold ups will now affect traffic going both ways.
In theory there should be a back route from Cancelada all the way to the Benahavis road but this is not currently accessible as there are road works there which means that the road is closed.
As it appears that more tourists and second home owners are starting to arrive, residents wonder why the work wasn’t undertaken during the pandemic when construction was allowed and local shops and supermarkets are bound to suffer from lack of access.