Castilla-La Mancha invests over €1 million to repair Toledo's Puy du Fou access road, worn by 17,000 vehicles a day

A road under heavy strain

The CM-40, Toledo's southwest ring road and the primary access to the Puy du Fou España theme park, is undergoing a rehabilitation costing more than one million euros. The road carries up to 17,000 vehicles per day on some stretches, with a high share of heavy goods vehicles. Last year, Puy du Fou welcomed over 1.7 million visitors, most of whom arrived via this route, accelerating wear on the pavement.

This variant supports growing vehicle traffic that on some sections reaches 17,000 vehicles a day, a large part of them heavy vehicles.

What the works involve

The intervention, visited this week by David Merino, the regional director general of roads, focuses on milling and replacing the pavement of the right-hand lane used by heavy vehicles in both directions. That lane had lost its load-bearing capacity and showed widespread cracking. The project also covers the pavement of two junctions that are in poor condition and form part of the usual access to the park and the southwestern area of the city.

We are going to proceed with the milling and replacement of the pavement of the right lane for heavy vehicles on both carriageways, which was cracked and had lost its load-bearing capacity, and we will also act on the pavement of two junctions that are in poor condition.

A wider road maintenance programme

The CM-40 works are financed under a road surface maintenance contract awarded in February. So far, that contract has delivered 4.1 million euros of investment across 36 kilometres of roads in the province of Toledo, including improvements on the CM-410 between Mora and Tembleque, the CM-4019 variant in Mora, the CM-4004 between Alameda de la Sagra and Añover, and the CM-4001 variant in Mocejón. Merino said that in the coming months further interventions will roll out until a total of 25 million euros is spent to upgrade 220 kilometres of regional roads in Toledo. Among the most immediate projects are the conditioning of the CM-4167 between Urda and the N-401 and the CM-4050 stretch between Polán and Burujón, works that are already nearing completion.

Puy du Fou expansion and the bus debate

The theme park is currently undergoing a 36,000 m² expansion with around twenty new facilities. By 2035, visitor numbers are expected to climb to more than two million a year, with some projections reaching three million. Three hotels with a total of about 500 rooms are due to be fully open by 2032. The regional government has deemed the forecast traffic for 2035 "manageable" during the morning peak and sees no problems in the afternoon or evening on the CM-40. Separately, the park's operator recently asked Toledo city council to run a dedicated urban bus service to the site. A Vox motion proposing such a line, financed wholly or partly by the French multinational, was rejected by the full council, with the PSOE and IU voting against and the PP abstaining.