Sector ZP-Pn5 · News
First stretch of the Arco Norte de Murcia ring road awarded for €84.2 million
The Ministry awards the €84.2 million contract for the first stretch of the Arco Norte de Murcia bypass, which will divert Andalucía–Levante through-traffic away from the Sector's surroundings.
25 June 2026
Spain's Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has awarded a contract worth around €84.19 million (VAT included) for the works on the first stretch of the Arco Norte de Murcia ring road: tramo B, 8.3 kilometres long, between kilometre 652 of the A-7 motorway and the Cabezo de Torres junction. According to La Opinión de Murcia, the works will be carried out by FCC and Pavasal.
The new stretch will begin at a junction at kilometre 4 of the MU-32 motorway and end with a confluence onto the A-7 at the Cabezo de Torres junction. The project includes 13 new structures — three viaducts, four overpasses and six underpasses — while the Ministry is still working on the technical and financial update of the second stretch (tramo A).
The stated aim is to separate long-distance through-traffic between Andalucía and the Levante (Alicante and Valencia provinces) from the urban congestion that today saturates the Nudo de Espinardo interchange — used by more than 125,000 vehicles a day — and Murcia's Ronda Oeste ring road. Together with the Arco Noroeste — operational since July 2025 and March 2026, built with a €264 million investment, and which according to La Opinión de Murcia has already cut tailbacks by more than half at the metropolitan area's most congested points — the Arco Norte will complete the city's northern bypass.
How does this relate to Sector ZP-Pn5?
The current A-7 corridor runs right along the northern boundary of Sector ZP-Pn5, and today carries both long-distance through-traffic between Andalucía and the Levante and traffic accessing Murcia and its immediate surroundings, including El Puntal. Once the Arco Norte opens, that long-distance traffic will shift to the new bypass, a little further north, easing pressure on the stretch of the A-7 next to the Sector. In practice, that stretch will come to function mainly as the access route into Murcia through the Sector's surroundings, rather than as a congested through-corridor — a shift that reinforces both the accessibility and the appeal of the Sector for its planned tertiary, logistics and retail uses.