Over 40km of traffic on AP-7 highway ahead of long Easter weekend

If you live in Barcelona and have plans to drive somewhere for the long Easter holiday weekend, you will perhaps not be too surprised to find you are far from the only person on the road.

On Thursday at midday, there were already over 40km of traffic mainly on the AP-7 highway, a major artery that runs along the coast to France.

Hours later, around 5:30 pm, there were only 20km of traffic. 

Specifically, there were 12km of traffic on the AP-7 between Mont-roig del Camp and l’Hospitalet de l’Infant due to an accident, 8km from Castellbisbal to Castellví de Rosanes, also due to an accident, and 3km on the N-340 between Vandellós and l’Ametlla de Mar.

There is also congestion on the C-14 near Alcover and on the N-II near Pineda de Mar.

According to Ramon Lamiel, the head of the Catalan Traffic Service, over 69,000 vehicles left the Barcelona area "early" ahead of the bank holiday weekend from Friday to Monday, 0.4% less than a year prior. 

Most of these are heading to the Costa Brava in the north and the Costa Daurada and Terres de l'Ebre region in southern Catalonia. 

A total of 380,000 are expected to leave the Catalan capital and surrounding cities on Thursday and Friday alone, while 600,000 are expected to return on Sunday and Monday. 

The authorities have lowered the speed limit to 100km/h on certain roads and added additional lanes in some areas.