It’s perhaps one of Andalucia’s most ambitious projects; a continuous 180km coastal path spanning the length of the Costa del Sol.
Known as the Senda Litoral in Spanish, the long-awaited project will allow walkers and cyclists to travel from Manilva to Nerja without ever leaving the beach.
And now, after years of delays and complications, authorities this week said they will have it complete by the end of 2027.
When the initiative was launched, around 80% of the coastline already had some form of pedestrian or road connection.
Today, the scheme covers 167 individual sections across all 14 municipalities of the Costa del Sol, with engineers from the provincial authority proud that the model is now being adopted elsewhere.
This week, Almuñecar laid the first stone for its own version of the path along the Granada coastline, in what is the first step towards an uninterrupted coastal corridor that could eventually stretch from Cadiz province all the way to Cabo de Gata in Almeria.
Progress has not been straightforward. Shifts in local, regional and national administrations, as well as the interruption caused by the pandemic, slowed or stalled several stretches.
The Axarquia has been the most complicated zone, with Malaga’s provincial president Francisco Salado acknowledging that lengthy procedures with both the Junta and Costas held up work.
By contrast, the western Costa del Sol is expected to have nearly all its segments finished over the course of next year.
The scale of the project is considerable. In Velez-Malaga alone, home to 23km of coastline, the provincial authority initially earmarked close to €2million.
In Granada, studies published this week outline plans to link the 80km of the Costa Tropical via cliff-side pathways, forming a future 250km coastal route up to the Manilva–Cadiz boundary.
By the time the Málaga section is completed in 2027, overall investment will exceed €12million.
That includes 23 footbridges built to cross river mouths and other natural barriers.
Among the most notable is the structure over the Guadalhorce estuary in Malaga city, while key installations still pending include the bridge planned for the lower section of the Torrox river, which will join the Ferrara seafront with the Peñoncillo area.
