Bank Holiday Gridlock On The Roads

The Holiday traffic congestion across Spain has already started - with thousands of motorists leaving the cities to spend a few days away over the fiesta period

Sunday December 6th (Day of Immaculate Conception) and Tuesday 8th (Constitution Day) are both public holidays but some companies area taking Monday the 7th as a “Puente” in order to extend the Bank Holiday Weekend, meaning that traffic jams are likely on many roads throughout the Country.

Even on Saturday the motorways leading out of Madrid were reported to be at a standstill with tailbacks of up to five kilometres reported on the M-40, the A-6, the A-3 in the direction of Valencia, and the A-4. There were similar reports from Cataluña - with the motorways leading into and out of Barcelona, particularly the AP-7 coast road heading south.

In some regions the Weather added to the problems seen on many of the roads - Traffic into and around both Sevilla and Granada was hampered by snowfalls, and excessive fog caused long tailbacks on the A381 in Cadiz .

A total of 6.2 million cars are expected to be out on the roads up to late on Tuesday.

The “Puente” on Monday will also be an official Fiesta in 11 regions – Murcia, Andalucía, the Balearics, the Canaries, Aragón, Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, La Rioja and Galicia. But, as is often seen in these cases, many people in the other regions will take Monday off work to make it a long weekend in order to get away.