Accessing Sitges

With a budget of €5.5 million, the roadworks started last May had a 12-month duration. The improvement works to access the Sitges Centre junction of the C-32 are almost over!

Not since 1880 has such extensive works been carried out for accessing the town, when the construction of the railway linking Barcelona (via Sitges) to Vilanova began, and led to establishing the railway link between Barcelona to Sitges in 1881. Until then Barcelona was accessed by sea or by long, arduous ways through the Garraf, and things were made just a little bit easier by building the C-246 coastal road in 1879, along the old way utilized back in the Middle Ages.

The works consisted of remodelling the junction to provide direct access to the Mas Alba Industrial and Retail Park via a slip road, and the creation of a new lane (in the Barcelona direction) exit 31 to Port d’Aiguadolç, enhancing road safety.

To build the slip road to the park, excavation work was carried out and explosives were used, which for a short time affected C-32 traffic in both directions. The explosion works started almost a year ago on the 14^th of October, and were carried out over a 12-week duration, including the building of an earth retaining wall at exit 30 of the C-32 in the Barcelona-direction.

The new junction is comprised of two roundabouts, one with the direct-access junction slip road from the motorway exit to the park and means that lorries and other vehicles will not have to go through the town centre in order to get there, which they had to do until the works were completed.

What remains pending is highway or autopista landscaping. Well-planted and maintained landscaping is believed to help reduce driving stress, give better visual quality, and decrease speeding, and consequently improve roadway safety.

As you can see, at the moment, the infrastructure has been completed and all roads are in use today. And, for drivers, the landscaping of the terrain bordering the new lanes, roundabouts and slip roads will also solidify positive, and fitting first and last impressions of Sitges.