The improvement of the current road accesses to the port of Barcelona has been activated. The Ministry of Transport has authorized the tender, which is expected to start in September, for the drafting of the construction project for the expansion of the Ronda Litoral between Can Tunis and El Morrot. The action, which includes the implementation of an additional lane in each direction, which in most of the route would be the fourth, and the reform of the accesses that connect with two entrances to the docks, should lighten the circulation in this section, usually congested by the dense traffic of trucks that enter and leave the port facilities.
The intervention affects a three-kilometer section of the Ronda Litoral that depends on the ministry and that has enough space in its central area, in the extensive medians, to place an additional lane in each direction so that in the final scheme one of them could be used for heavy vehicles. This expansion would start at the beginning of the Can Tunis railway complex and end at the height of the Montjuïc cemetery. When the road was designed, it was already foreseen that it could be extended in this way and for years it has been planned to do so. The Transport forecast is that the drafting of the construction project will require a couple of years. The works could then be tendered, which will take between 18 and 24 months, according to current estimates. The performance is estimated to cost 37 million euros.
Although the most visible improvement for general traffic will be the implementation of the new lane in each direction, the improvement of access to the port area is also relevant since it will increase the entry and exit capacity, mainly for trucks that, due to current limitations, often generate queues that impact the ring road. The performance will take place in the connections with gates 28 and 29 of the port. The first is at the height of the Zona Franca promenade and the second, at the Montjuïc cemetery. In both cases, an absolute remodeling has been planned that includes the construction of large roundabouts that facilitate circulation and connections.
This project does not affect the reform that has to be done on the contiguous section of the Ronda Litoral that runs through the Morrot, bordering Montjuïc, ministerial sources say. This other action, also pending for years, requires the agreement of the City Council and the port. Transportes foresaw in an informative study approved in 2018, which also included the previously explained stretch of three kilometers up to 5.6, with a total investment of 119 million, expanding the road infrastructure that here has only two lanes in each direction, which causes significant congestion, with a second viaduct that would double the capacity. But in the face of the rejection expressed by the other two parties, he finally left the matter in a drawer. There are other proposals, still to be specified, that propose acting on the surface and undertaking a more extensive urban redevelopment that would include the transfer of the Morrot railway station.
