Rías Bajas Highway

The Rías Bajas highway or A-52 is a Spanish highway that connects Galicia with Castilla y León, connecting the provinces of Pontevedra, Orense and Zamora with the A-6 highway, originating in Madrid. In the Galician section the road is called "Autovía das Rías Baixas".

History

It replaces the N-525 and the N-120 as long-distance roads (until 2001 the first section of what is now the N-525 was called CL-620). It is 307 km long, its beginning is at the p.k. 267 of the Northwest Highway (A-6), passing the city of Benavente (while connecting with the A-66) and its current end at kilometer point 306 where it connects with the A-55. In the future it is intended to take it to Vigo, constituting an alternative to the A-55 and the AP-9. It crosses three provinces (Zamora, Orense and Pontevedra) and has several tunnels and viaducts of a certain size.

Its construction dates back to the beginning of 1994 when work began on the Melón-Barbantes (Orense) sections and ended on December 28, 1998 when the last section between Requejo (Zamora) and Vilavella (Orense) derived from the difficulty of the latter. It should be noted that the work turned out to be more expensive than initially anticipated, and even the continuous landslides, the orographic difficulties that appeared and the complexity of the route made it seem like it would never be finished. The first open sections (with several subsections), in 1996, corresponded to the Vigo-Orense section (the one with the highest volume of traffic) and ended with the last sections of La Cañiza-Túnel de O Folgoso and Orense-Ribadavia, both sections completed in December 1998), and the sections (including subsections) between Orense and Benavente were inaugurated in February 2000, with the commissioning of a second carriageway of the La Canda tunnel of the Requejo-Villavieja section.

At kilometer point 99 of this road is the Padornelo tunnel, with an altitude in this section of 1,381 m above sea level. n. m., which places it as the high-capacity road at the highest altitude in Spain.

After passing the informative study, on October 25, 2007, the project for the extension of the highway to the city of Vigo with a 2.8 km tunnel under the Puxeiros mountain and a total distance of 1430 m on viaducts, as an alternative to the current A-55. The works were scheduled to begin in autumn 2013 (the project had already been put out to tender in March 2009, awarded in autumn 2009, the drafting of the project would last 18 months, until spring 2011), and thus be able to tender the works in autumn 2011 and the works will be awarded in winter 2012) and its completion was to take place between autumn 2016 and spring 2017. The extension would consist of 10.3 km and cost around 169 million euros.

However, currently the project to extend the A-52 highway from Porriño to Vigo has been cancelled, since the informative study of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda had restarted (on the arrival of Minister Ana Shepherd). It had a budget for the 2015 projection of €2,592,940 (this budget is counting for the new drafting of the project and there is no budget for beyond 2016 and 2017, according to the last General State Budget of 2014.

Environmental issues

The section of the A-52 that runs through the northwest of the province of Zamora, as it passes through the regions of La Carballeda and Sanabria, has been identified by several environmental groups as the black spot on Spanish roads for the wolf, a species that enjoys protected status in Spain. There are several reasons that cause this problem, mostly related to the lack of maintenance of the highway as it passes through the aforementioned territory.

Sections

Departures

Departure Number	Departure name	Road linking observations
1	León - Oviedo	A-66
1	La Bañeza - Lugo - La Coruña	A-6
2	Benavente - Madrid - Zamora	A-6
4 (Vigo sense) - 6 (Benavente sense)	Manganes de la Polvorosa - Villabrázaro - Santa Cristina de la Polvorosa
15	Chiruelas de Vidriales - Quintanilla de Urz
29	Camarzana de Tera - La Bañeza	ZA-110
49	Zamora Rionegro del Puente	N-631 N-525
54 (Vigo sense) - 57 (Benavente sense)	Mombuey	N-525
75	Palacios de Sanabria - Otero de Sanabria	N-525
79 (Vigo sense) - 85 (Benavente sense)	Puebla de Sanabria - Lago de Sanabria	N-525
91 (Vigo sense) - 92 (Benavente sense)	Requirement	N-525
	Padornele tunnel 830 m
	Portillo del Padornelo 1361m
99 (Vigo sense) - 103 (Benavente sense)	Padornelo - Aciberos	N-525
106 (Vigo sense) - 107 (Benavente sense)	Lubián - Hermisende
108 (Vigo sense)	Chanos - Las Hedradas	N-525
	Tunel de La Canda 450 m
	Portela da Canda 1241 m
	Province of Orense GALICIA / Province of Zamora CASTILLA Y LEÓN
114 (Vigo sense) - 117 (Benavente sense)	Villavieja - Portugal	N-525
120 (Benavente sense)	Pereiro - La Mezquita - Portugal	N-525 OU-311
124 (Vigo sense) - 129 (Benavente sense)	La Gudiña-Viana del Bollo- A Rúa de Petin	N-525 OU-533
132	Erosa - Pentes
143	As Vendas da Barreira - Riós	N-525
151	Fumaces - Vilardevós	N-525
155	Verin - Vilardevós	OU-310
159 (Vigo sense)	Chaves - Portugal	A-75
160	Verín - Oímbra - Portugal	N-532 A-75
166 (Benavente sense)	Monterrey - Verín - Vilaza	OU-1014
173	Cualedro - Albarellos	N-525 OU-902
181	Trasmiras - Villaderrei	N-525
188	Ginzo de Limia - Abavides	N-525
193	Ginzo de Limia	N-525
202	Sandiás	N-525
210 (Vigo sense) - 211 (Benavente sense)	Allariz - Taboadela - Polígono Industrial San Cibrán	N-525
213	INTRADA/SALIDA CLOSED Futura Taboadela Service Area (subject to public information) 0-24 hours
217	La Merca - Celanova Polígono San Cibrao Das Viñas Ring	AG-31 VG-3.1
224	Orense sur - San Cibrán das Viñas - Celanova - Industrial Polygon of San Ciprián	N-525 OU-540
228 (Vigo sense)- 230 (Benavente sense)	Orense center	OU-11
233	North Orense - Monforte de Lemos Lugo - Wild Canyon	N-120 N-525 N-540
	Tunnel of alongos 202 m
240	Court Santiago de Compostela - Lalin	OU-402 AG-53
241	Carballiño - Pontevedra	N-541
249 (Vigo sense)	Ribadavia Service Area 0-24 hours
252	Ribadavia	N-120
262	Melon - Quins	N-120
	Province of Pontevedra / Province of Orense
269 (Vigo sense)	The Cañiza	N-120
271 (Vigo sense) - 272 (Benavente sense)	La Cañiza - Crecente - Arbo	PO-5005
	Tunel Do Folgoso 2550 m
282 (sent Benavente)	Snow - La Franqueira	PO-5001
287	Snows - Battles
291 (Vigo sense) - 294 (Benavente sense)	Puenteareas - Salvatierra de Miño - Portugal	AG-51
303	Canes	N-120
305	Porriño	N-120
306	Round - Pontevedra	N-550
307	Vigo Pontevedra	A-55 AP-9
	Tuy - Portugal Bayona	A-55 AG-57