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AI traffic lights are being installed at one of Orihuela Costa's most notorious roundabouts
The Punta Prima roundabout handles 45,000 vehicles a day and has been a headache for drivers for years
The daily long queues and weaving cars at the Punta Prima roundabout on the N-332 are legendary at this stage and the traffic system here has been in need of some attention for years. The good news is that help is finally on the way, with the Spanish Ministry of Transport set to begin installation works on an AI-powered traffic light system at the roundabout from Monday March 30.
The roundabout, which sits at kilometre 52.8 of the N-332 on the border between Torrevieja and Orihuela Costa, is one of the most congested pinch points on the Costa Blanca. According to Ministry of Transport figures, around 45,000 vehicles pass through this stretch of the dual carriageway every single day, and that number climbs significantly during Easter and the summer months.
Residents of Rocío del Mar, Señorío de Gomendio and Punta Prima have no other way onto the N-332, and the roundabout also takes in traffic from Las Olas and Escorpiones avenues, two of the area's busiest roads.
Queues regularly stretch back hundreds of metres in the direction of Torrevieja and marginally less in the other direction towards Orihuela Costa.
The project has a budget of €409,369 including VAT, funded through European money from Spain's Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
Rather than a standard traffic light setup, the system will use machine learning and artificial intelligence to monitor traffic in real time and automatically adjust the light cycles based on how busy things actually are at any given moment.
Detection cameras and traffic monitoring devices will be installed at each entry point to the roundabout, feeding data into a central AI control system that will effectively learn from experience and get smarter over time.
The Ministry has pointed out that the project isn't just about sorting out one troublesome roundabout. According to their statement, the aim is also to lay the groundwork for bringing intelligent traffic management systems to the wider national road network, so Punta Prima is essentially going to be something of a test case.
Drivers will need to bear with some disruption in the short term. Partial traffic restrictions will be in place from March 30 right through until the end of May to keep both workers and road users safe during the installation.
It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to anyone familiar with the area that the works are starting just before Easter, arguably the worst possible time for a busy roundabout. Once everything is up and running though, the AI will have plenty of real-world traffic to learn from, especially with summer just around the corner.
Images: Ministry of Transport
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