The Ministry of Transport has tendered the contract to design a new connection between the AP-68 and the N-232 in Aldeanueva del Ebro, in La Rioja Baja. The link is something that the area has been demanding for years and is expected to arrive precisely after the liberalization of the Basque-Aragonese toll, scheduled for the end of the year. Below these lines we tell you all the details.
Claim. The region of La Rioja Baja had long complained of being poorly connected to the AP-68. The section between the Corella/Alfaro and Calahorra links It is 27.6 kilometers without any intermediate exita distance that forces many drivers and transporters to make unnecessary detours through the secondary network. The idea is that the new link, planned at kilometer 186.2 of the highway, covers that gap.
What exactly has been tendered. What the ministry has put out to competition It is not the construction of the link, but the contract to write the project. The amount of this tender amounts to 718,908.44 euros (VAT included) and the execution period is 24 months. According to official planning, design work would begin in March 2027 and conclude in February 2029. The physical works on the land, therefore, would not arrive before mid-2029. The estimated budget for construction is around 11.2 million euros.
How would the connection be? The new link would join kilometer 186.2 of the AP-68 with the N-232, around kilometer 351.6 of this road, through the regional highway LR-384, which passes through the municipality of Aldeanueva del Ebro. In this way, the connection would significantly shorten journeys in the Rioja corridor area.
lAP-68 will no longer collect tolls. The AP-68 concession is about to expire and the highway will become free of charge, expected at the end of this year (less in the Álava area). This implies a significant increase in traffic, and the ministry is taking advantage of the lead-up to this liberalization to reinforce access to the road. Along the same lines there is also the Fuenmayor linkalready partially in service, which connects the future A-68 highway with the A-12, the LO-20, the N-120 and the N-232, and which has involved an investment of 36 million euros.
The Secretary of State for Transport, José Antonio Santano, counted during its commissioning that the action “leaves the connections of all the roads close to the AP-68 ready, once the toll is released.” Of the 13 branches of the Fuenmayor link, 8 are already operational; The remaining 5 will not be able to be enabled until the highway is free of tolls.
And also in Calahorra. The ministry confirms that, in parallel, it is drafting a project to improve the functionality of the existing link between the AP-68 and the N-232 in Calahorra. Three actions (Fuenmayor, Calahorra and Aldeanueva) that draw a roadmap to modernize the connections of the entire Rioja corridor before and after the AP-68 opens its barriers definitively.
What’s left. The project tender is a first step, but the deadlines are long. That the design will not be ready until 2029 means that the works are still far away. Now the region will have to wait for that 27-kilometer gap without access to become a bigger problem than it already is, especially when the toll is freed and there is more traffic circulating on the AP-68.
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