Traffic congestion in Alicante

Traffic is increasing on almost all roads administered by the Generalitat with an increase in traffic after the recession caused by the pandemic - The entrances to Torrevieja and Dénia are again the most problematic points, with more than 30,000 vehicles passing daily.

Local roads in the province of Alicante, with higher traffic densities, have further exacerbated their congestion, as reflected in the average daily intensity data for 2022 just released by the Ministry of Territorial Policy, Public Works and Mobility. The study shows how there was a widespread increase in traffic on the roads administered by the Generalitat in the Alicante demarcation area last year, and that some of them recorded particularly high numbers. There were a few one-time exceptions, but there was a clear upward trend across the network.

Traffic noise is an inconvenience to 45 educational and medical institutions in the province of Alicante.

Congestion on the roads of the Alicante region

The busiest regional motorway in the province of Alicante is the CV-725, which links the AP-7 motorway with Denis and is the main entrance to the capital, Marina Alta. Every day last year, 32,764 vehicles passed through the section closest to the city, almost 3% more than in 2021. But, in addition, the traffic volume was 27,027 vehicles on the initial section of the road with one lane in each direction; it also grew by almost 4% in a year. At the other end of the border, the situation is similar, with 30,586 CV-905s in daily use in Torrevieja, up 12.3% from 2021. Another section of this road, completely divided, also supported 26,112 vehicles.

The CV-905 has much in common with the CV-725 as it is the main access to the coastal urban center from the nearby high capacity highway, but with the addition that Torrevieja has twice the population of Denia. The situation is similar on the CV-70 between La Nucia and Benidorm, which was used by an average of 27,363 vehicles per day last year. In this case, we are not talking about the main entrance to the tourist capital of Marina Baixa, but a densely populated area in which there is a constant risk of congestion and, in addition, there is a special duty to be careful when driving. Arrival in Santa Pola from Elche by CV- 865 gives slightly lower but equally high numbers, with an average daily intensity of 20,297, up 2.7% from the previous year. Again, this is a way to get to a coastal city, in this case, to connect it to the capital of your region. There is a fifth highway with more than 20,000 daily traffic, CV-821, which runs from the urban ring road of San Vicente del Raspeig to San Juan d'Alacant, and which, after handing over several sections to the municipalities, starts its journey next to Vilafrancesa. However, this is one of the few exceptions as it lost 9.5% of traffic in 2022, remaining at 21,713 vehicles per day.

However, only a few major highways experienced a decline in traffic last year. In general, there is an increase in mobility in line with the removal of all restrictions caused by the pandemic. Quite a lot of roads with more than 10,000 cars passing daily, most of them with one lane in each direction, such as the CV-91 from Orihuela to Guardamar, the approaches to Javea and Alfaz del Pi on CV-734 and CV- 763., the initial section of the CV-800 at Muxamel or at the Orihuela junction with the A-7 motorway, among others. In all of them, it is foreseeable that high density will require action in the future.