Marbella's coastal walkway to be extended

The town's Councillor for Works, Diego López, has held meetings with the provincial minister for the Environment, Cristóbal Ortega, and with the technical departments of both administrations to push forward five coastal footpath projects that would extend the current wooden walkway all the way from the Marbella Arch to Los Monteros beach.

In a statement to the press López explained that the idea is for work to begin in the first quarter of next year and that each section would be carried out "gradually" as and when permission was granted "so that many would be finished before the end of 2020".

He confirmed that the first section to be constructed would be a six-metre wide wooden walkway in the Funny Beach area. "It's a stretch that the Málaga provincial government is already working on in order to connect the two existing wooden walkways which are currently linked in a temporary fashion by concrete slabs on the sand", he added.

He confirmed that the new link would stretch some 180 metres and would be raised up over the sand, and that more than 2,500 square metres of beach would be gained by the new constructions as the two existing walkways would be linked at the same height.

The second section to be constructed will be the segment between Camping Marbella Playa and Río Real beach, "a total 3,000 square metres of walkway across a stretch of sand currently transited by thousands of people".

He went on to explain that the next sections to be tackled would be the 740 metres between Río Real beach and Realejo beach, "which would just leave the last stretch to Los Monteros which would complete the link to this part of town".

With these new walkways, the town council would complete the coastal link all the way from the Marbella Arch to Los Monteros beach, creating a continuous 4km path for all kinds of activities.

López confirmed that funds to finance these five projects (with an estimated cost of 2,900,000€) would be requested from the provincial government. underlining that "when these five sections are completed, we will have 9,558 square metres of coastal path, equipped with lighting, beach access points, rest areas, viewing points and water fountains".

The councillor mentioned that he had also used the meeting to raise the issue of improving and extending the existing clay pathways to link the town with neighbouring Mijas (Málaga).