SAFETY works have begun at Estepona’s infamous ‘ant roundabout’ at Arroyo Vaquero — the same junction where residents complained of seeing crashes ‘almost daily’.
A municipal works video released this week shows crews replacing 20 metres of crash barriers, installing illuminated vertical traffic signs and fitting reflective road studs at the Las Hormigas roundabout on the A-7 exit between Estepona and Sabinillas.
The improvements match almost exactly the list of safety failures neighbours previously raised with the Olive Press.
Last year, residents in Arroyo Vaquero and La Vaguada said the roundabout lacked lighting, had insufficient signage, damaged guardrails and worn road markings that were never properly repaired after collisions.
They claimed the road authority did little more than ‘place a cone’ despite a growing list of accidents.
At the time, locals said the junction had seen six crashes in a single week, with two on the same night.
Since last summer, vehicles had been left burnt out, cars had ended up off the carriageway and one driver smashed into the roundabout while swerving to avoid an animal.
Neighbours also warned that poor visibility and the lack of safe pedestrian crossings posed a danger to children walking to school.
They called for urgent changes to signage, lighting, barriers and speed control before ‘a catastrophe’ occurred.
The new works now under way show illuminated signs being erected, fresh guardrails being installed and reflective cat’s eyes being embedded into the road surface to improve night-time visibility.
The roundabout sits at the busy Arroyo Vaquero exit of the A-7, a key route used daily by residents travelling between Estepona, Sabinillas and Manilva.
For many locals, the changes will raise an obvious question – why it took so long for action to be taken at a junction widely regarded as a crash black spot.
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