Seventy-Two Kilometres of Missing Motorway Land on the Minister's Desk Today, Two and a Half Years After the Meeting Was Asked For
The Extremadura and Beira Baixa alliance says 88 percent of the toll-free Lisbon to Madrid route through the interior is already built. The gap is the EX-A1 between Moraleja and Cilleros and the IC31 between Alcains and Idanha-a-Nova.
The Infrastructure Minister, Miguel Pinto Luz, meets the Extremadura regional government's infrastructure councillor in Lisbon on Wednesday. The cross-border alliance that has been asking for that meeting for two and a half years sent a statement to Lusa the night before, and it reads less like a welcome than a warning.
The Aliança Territorial Europeia Norte da Extremadura e Beira Baixa wants concrete commitments and binding timetables for the start of works, not another expression of intent. "The province of Cáceres, the Beira Baixa and the Alto Alentejo cannot go on being treated as an island," said its Spanish spokesperson, Francisco Martín. "Fewer people in the interior does not mean fewer rights."
Seventy-two kilometres
What is missing is a 72 kilometre gap in what would otherwise be a continuous toll-free motorway between Lisbon and Madrid through the Beira Baixa and northern Extremadura. The alliance says 88 percent of that route is already motorway without tolls. The unbuilt remainder splits across the border: the EX-A1 between Moraleja and Cilleros on the Spanish side, and the IC31 between Alcains and Idanha-a-Nova on the Portuguese side. The alliance calls the whole thing the Autoestrada da Esperança, and wants the first section of works to start immediately.
Two international bridges are on the same list. The alliance is pressing for immediate validation of the pending steps so that Spain's Congress of Deputies can approve the international agreement covering the bridge over the river Erges, following the model adopted at the XXXV Luso-Spanish Summit in Faro. It wants construction of the Cedillo international bridge to begin quickly, and a logistics and industrial corridor to be created alongside.
The argument from tourism
The alliance's economic case is built on time rather than distance. Complete the link, it argues, and the beaches of central Portugal sit two and a half hours from northern Extremadura and under five hours from Madrid. It estimates that the absence of modern access costs the interior roughly a million tourists a year.
"Completing this connection is fundamental for the competitiveness of our companies, for keeping people here, and for turning the interior into a genuine axis of cross-border development," said Leopoldo Rodrigues, mayor of Castelo Branco.
The deadline the alliance has set itself is the end of 2029, timed to arrive before the 2030 World Cup that Portugal, Spain and Morocco will co-host.
What this means for expats
- If you live in the Beira Baixa: this is the single infrastructure decision with the largest bearing on property values and business viability in Castelo Branco district over the next decade.
- Driving to Madrid today: the practical route remains the A23 to the A25 or the A6, both longer than the direct line the IC31 would open.
- Rail is not the alternative here: CP still runs replacement buses on much of the Beira Baixa line, and Lisbon and Madrid have ruled out regauging their conventional network to the European standard.
- Watch for a date, not a photograph: the alliance's own test of Wednesday's meeting is whether a calendar comes out of it.
The interior's transport backlog is not confined to this corridor. Parliament has separately been pressing the government to reopen the Corgo railway to Vila Real and Chaves, and the high-speed programme has absorbed most of the ministry's political attention, down to rehousing arguments in Campanhã. The alliance's complaint is essentially that the same ministry has 72 kilometres of unglamorous tarmac on a list somewhere, and has not reached it.
