The project for this section has been drawn up since 2007 and its updating was contracted by the Regional Council at the beginning of the year. As reported by this department of the Canary Islands GovernmentAfter completing the public information process, “the contracting of the definitive execution of the works will begin in the coming months.” If these provisions are met, the action could begin to be carried out before the end of the mandate and without major effects on traffic, since practically the entire route is newly built, further from the sea than the current TF-5 and with three tunnel sections, the cost of which exceeds 48 million euros. The longest tunnel, located at the beginning of the route to avoid a protected area and the Rambler helmet, measures about 975 meters. There is another with a length of 320 meters, which comes out of the Las Monjas ravine, and a third of 826 meters, in Las Cucharas.
The new road will actually be a double track, with two lanes for each direction of traffic and with independent tunnels. The old TF-5 layout will continue to be available as an alternative. The BOC has published the new project, which It has already met the initial rejection of the Rambler Government (PSOE-AIS-CC) for the “forgetting of access to La Rambla.” Now a period of 30 days is established in which allegations, observations and consultations can be presented. The General Directorate of Road Infrastructure considers that with this recently completed update, a project that the Government of the Canary Islands had completed since 2007 but never executed is recovered.
The Regional Council of Public Works awarded in the first quarter of this year to the company Trazas Ingeniería SL the service of updating the layout project for the road between San Juan de La Rambla and Icod de los Vinos to adapt it to current regulations. That order cost about 295,000 euros.
Public Works foresees that when the section of the Insular Ring between El Tanque and Santiago del Teide is put into service, the TF-5 will receive about 28,000 vehicles per day
The work will allow to continue with the closure of the Tenerife Island Ring to the North, since it will connect to the east with the section of the TF-5 between San Juan de La Rambla and Los Realejos, and with the section already in use between Icod and El Tanque, in the western area. Currently the ring closure between El Tanque and Santiago del Teide, the largest work carried out by the Canarian Government, with an investment of 240 million euros and the longest tunnel in the Archipelago, with 5.1 kilometers.
The project design proposes three tunnels that have a length of about 2,100 linear meters: one of 975 meters, another of 320 and a third of 826, in the Las Cucharas area.
The Ministry of Public Works recognizes that the entry into service in the coming years of the aforementioned section between Santiago del Teide and El Tanque will attract a daily average of 28,000 vehicles from North to South, “therefore the General Directorate of Road Infrastructure, in collaboration with the Cabildo de Tenerife, decided to resume and promote this section between San Juan de la Rambla and Icod ».
The technicians have made the necessary adjustments to reduce the effects on a Site of Community Interest (SCI) and the protected space of Campeches, Tigaiga and Ruiz; the effects on buildings, and the occupation of land. The route has been designed so that it can be circulated at an average speed of about 80 kilometers per hour.
Upset about access to La Rambla
The mayor of San Juan de la Rambla, Ezequiel Domínguez (PSOE), regrets that the new road planned between Las Aguas and Buen Paso “has left access to the neighborhood of La Rambla off the road.” Domínguez expresses his dissatisfaction with the Area of Roads, Mobility and Innovation of the Cabildo de Tenerife “for making firm its position of not addressing this section because, according to what they allege, it is out of their priorities.” The president emphasizes that “for more than three decades we have been demanding that the insular area of Roads take into account the security needs of the TF-5 at the height of La Rambla, so it is incomprehensible that an area with so much traffic and of high danger is not contemplated in the closure of the Insular Ring ».
