Dozens of km of traffic to get out of Barcelona area for Sant Joan weekend

Sant Joan is upon us once more, a holiday that typically sees thousands of people make their way out of the cities and enjoy some days on the coast or in more rural settings. 

Despite the fact that Sant Joan falls on a Saturday this year, meaning people will not get to enjoy a long weekend with the bank holiday, it's still expected that many will make their way out of Barcelona for some days. 

Catalonia's transport agency expects 460,000 vehicles to leave the Barcelona metropolitan area by Saturday, with a similar number likely to return in the days afterward.

As such, the 'operació sortida' as it is known locally – 'operation departure' – has led to slow-moving traffic all along the main highways of Catalonia. 

The AP-7, which runs near the coast from the southern tip of Catalonia up past Barcelona and on beyond Figueres towards France, is once again packed with vehicles looking to leave the metropolitan area.

By around 4 pm, a stretch of over 50km had slow-moving traffic at various points across the AP-7 highway, mostly running north toward Girona, but no serious traffic jams were reported.

One lane has also been converted to run in the opposite direction, such was the volume of traffic seeking to get out of the metropolitan area on Friday afternoon. 

Barcelona's ring roads, the Ronda Litoral and Ronda de Dalt, were also experiencing heavy traffic, with over 10km of queues on the coastal ring road and 20km of traffic on the road closer to the mountains. 

The C-31 southern exit from Barcelona to Castelldefels, Sitges, and Tarragona saw a buildup of just under 10km of traffic, while the C-32 northerly exit toward Maresme and the Costa Brava area saw heavy congestion of around 22km of traffic, spread out across different sections of the highway. 

Two highways connecting Barcelona with the inland areas of Catalonia, the C-58 and C-17, saw buildups of around 16km and 6km, respectively.