The opposition parties in the Council of Mallorca, the PSIB-PSOE and MÉS per Mallorca, harshly criticize the project for phase I of the second ring road made public this Wednesday. The Council of Mallorca announced in 2024 an initial project for phase I of the second ring road in Palma valued at 110 million euros. The president of the island institution, Llorenç Galmés, appeared this Wednesday accompanied by the president of the Government and the mayor of Palma to present the definitive project, which has been budgeted at 350 million euros.

A new road –the first section of the second ring road– is the Mallorca Council's recipe to alleviate the traffic collapse suffered by the access routes to Palma. It is an action “of great social consensus”, according to the island institution, with a projected cost of 350 million euros that must continue the dual carriageway of the Ma-30 between the Manacor road and the Llucmajor motorway. The project has gained in ambition, budget, and execution time compared to what Galmés himself presented in the year 2024. The works will be divided into two phases, valued respectively at 90 and 260 million euros, and the Council plans to execute them partially simultaneously to reduce their total duration, which between the two phases adds up to six years and two months of work. The president of the Council, Llorenç Galmés, announced this Wednesday that the first phase will begin to be executed before the end of the year, while the technical managers have set the start of the works in 2027, once the processing and the public information period have been completed.

Information updated at 5:10 PM. All planned restrictions on roads, access to natural areas, and parking lots to ensure safety during the eclipse are already in effect in the Balearic Islands. In Mallorca, access to the Serra de Tramuntana via the Ma-10 and about twenty other roads leading to viewpoints, coves, and spots where a large turnout is expected has been controlled since 3 PM.

The water crisis in Pla de Mallorca is entering a new chapter in terms of savings due to the lack of water resources in the region. The Algaida City Council yesterday approved a motion from the PSIB governing team, through which the plenary session requests the Consell de Mallorca to stop using water from the municipality's aquifers "with urgency" for the cleaning and maintenance tasks of the Manacor road (Ma-15). The motion was approved unanimously by all parties present in the plenary session, PSIB, PP, and MÉS per Algaida.

With good weather, cycle tourism is reactivated. It is now common to see groups of tourists on bicycles on the roads of Mallorca. Is this an "opportunity", as the Minister of Tourism, Jaume Bauzà, defended this Tuesday in the plenary session of the Parliament? Or, the cause of the "chaos on the roads?", as the deputy of MÉS per Mallorca, Marta Carrió, reproached him?

MÁS per Mallorca proposes that large commercial establishments and other infrastructure that generate high traffic flow should reimburse public funds for a portion of the associated costs. The party has urged the Consell de Mallorca (Island Council of Mallorca) to initiate the necessary technical and legal work to create a special use fee for public roads in cases where these spaces generate a unique and structural level of traffic. Joan Llodrà, deputy spokesperson for MÁS per Mallorca in the Consell, explained that the objective is "to apply a basic principle of justice and responsibility: those who cause intensive and specific use of public infrastructure must bear the resulting additional costs." According to the party, the island's road network is under increasing pressure due to the concentration of large commercial areas and infrastructure on the outskirts and the reliance on private vehicles. This necessitates widening access roads, reinforcing roundabouts, and more intensive maintenance, the cost of which is currently borne by all citizens. The motion proposes identifying sections of road with particularly high traffic volumes linked to major facilities, commissioning individualized mobility studies, and preparing an economic and financial report to quantify the differential cost. It also plans to request the necessary legal reports to guarantee the viability and proportionality of the measure. MÁS has emphasized that the toll, if implemented, would be earmarked for specific purposes, and the revenue would be allocated to the maintenance of the affected road network. Furthermore, these resources would free up part of the Council's ordinary budget to invest in public transportation and sustainable mobility projects. The initiative, which will be debated in plenary session on Thursday, is part of a shift in the model towards territorial cohesion, strengthening local businesses, and reducing dependence on private vehicles. According to Llodrà, "We cannot continue to socialize the costs of an unsustainable model. Mallorca needs responsibility, fairness, and mobility designed for the future."

Rain and a drop in temperature have returned to Mallorca, especially to the northeast of the island, where sleet has blanketed Capdepera and Cala Rajada in white. After the temperature plummeted and the freezing water created striking images, the tourist center of Capdepera shows the effects of the storm in this part of Mallorca.

The fog that enveloped Mallorca in the early hours of Tuesday morning caused widespread delays at the airport, which, among other incidents, caused several members of parliament to arrive late to the Parliamentary plenary session.

The Mallorcan Council begins the political year with an election promise that has yet to be fulfilled: to fund Mallorca's roads. Mobility will be one of the main pillars of this new phase, and the president of the island's institution, Llorenç Galmés, has announced that work will begin in the coming months on the ITV roundabout on the Sóller highway, and at the beginning of the year, work will begin on the first section of Palma's second ring road to ease congestion on the ring road.

The Mallorcan Council repeatedly fined the company Malla Publicidad for placing billboards in areas where the Highway Law did not permit them, according to sources from the PSIB (Spanish Association of Public Administrations) told ARA Baleares. However, when the Administrative Simplification Law was amended, the meaning of the concept of "crossing" contemplated in the regulations was also changed, the same sources point out. Article 36 of the Highway Law established that billboards could not be installed alongside roads and could only be placed in urban crossroads, and only on urban land. Furthermore, the installation of such billboards on rural land was completely prohibited.

The renovation of the Bunyola-Orient-Alaró highway will entail an investment of 6.1 million euros and will not entail the consumption of additional land. This was stated by the President of the Mallorcan Council, Llorenç Galmés, at the project presentation. He also announced that work will begin at the end of October and is expected to be completed in less than a year.