The AP-7 southbound lane in Martorell has reopened
The remaining roads will open within "days," and drivers are asked to use alternative routes to avoid a "bottleneck effect."
Less than two hours after the Catalan government reopened one of the southbound lanes of the AP-7 motorway in Martorell—the leftmost lane—an accident forced its closure again to facilitate the work of emergency services. This section was scheduled to reopen to traffic around 2:00 PM, once the holiday exodus had concluded. By mid-afternoon, after emergency personnel had attended to the accident, the lane had been reopened. The authorization to reopen this lane of the motorway came after technicians from the Ministry of Transport, who were assessing the slope that collapsed and caused a fatal train accident on the R4 line, confirmed that opening it was "perfectly safe," as the landslide was not expected to collapse. In fact, the accident had nothing to do with the infrastructure, although the closure of one lane posed a risk to traffic flow. The other two lanes, the right-hand ones, will remain closed, and their reopening is a matter of "days," according to Ramon Lamiel, Director General of the Catalan Traffic Service, who spoke on Friday. For the time being, drivers are asked to continue using alternative routes to avoid a "bottleneck effect." The Ministry of Transport indicated that the reopening was carried out at the request of the Catalan government (Generalitat), following a meeting with the Minister of Territory, Silvia Paneque. The closure was implemented Wednesday afternoon near Martorell, southbound, at the request of the Ministry of Transport due to track instability after the collapse of a retaining wall caused the Gelida train accident, which left one dead and 37 injured. On Friday, workers began installing barriers to separate one lane, the one closest to the northbound lanes and farthest from the train tracks. In statements to the media, Lamiel explained that they decided to set the opening time at 2 p.m. because this would allow the peak of the weekend getaway to pass. The Director General of Traffic also explained that since the AP-7 was closed, the C-32 has seen a doubling of its average daily traffic, as the Catalan government has lifted the toll at least until Wednesday. Specifically, traffic has increased from 60,000 to 120,000 vehicles. Therefore, he emphasized that the alternative routes currently being offered (including the N-340 and the A-2) are "good and recommended" for distributing traffic and avoiding "very long queues." Return of hazardous goods
The decision to reopen the section of the AP-7 motorway was made after the Catalan Traffic Service (Trànsit) met with technicians from the Ministry of Transport on Friday. According to Lamiel, the meeting confirmed that the left lane of the motorway was "preserved" from the landslide and that there were guarantees it could be reopened safely. "The left lane is especially safe after the explanations we received and after reviewing all the images," he explained. The images clearly showed that the slope that collapsed was not under the motorway. The reopening of one lane of the AP-7 southbound in Martorell will also allow the transport of hazardous materials to return to the motorway. Lamiel explained that these types of trucks must travel on roads without tunnels and outside of populated areas. "The AP-7 offers better service and, therefore, provides us with peace of mind regarding road safety," he concluded. During the opening, Mossos d'Esquadra officers and ministry technicians will be present in case there are "any details" that need adjusting.
