The Santa Cruz de Tenerife Demarcation of the College of Civil Engineers, Channels and Ports has drawn up a report in which it analyzes the four ports of Tenerife capable of serving as a connection with the three Green Islands (La Palma, Gomera and Hierro). Namely: Santa Cruz, Granadilla, Los Cristianos and the future Fonsalía, as commissioned by the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo de Tenerife.
Both the extension and the detailed analysis of the report detail the most specific points of the report, where Santa Cruz and Granadilla are discarded and Los Cristianos is proposed to be resized, given that, if Fonsalía is built, this port would not be completed until ten years from now.
“Santa Cruz is ruled out, even for the connection with La Palma, due to the greater distance (15% more than to Granadilla), because it does not allow simultaneous traffic passing through La Gomera and because it would probably require an almost exclusive boat for that line. that would considerably increase the price of transport and the carbon footprint ”, the report indicates.
Likewise, Granadilla is ruled out because “the navigation distance with respect to Los Cristianos increases by almost 70% with San Sebastián and by 22% with La Estaca and Santa Cruz de La Palma,” he continues. Operating from Granadilla, instead of Los Cristianos, “represents an increase of 3,237 more hours of navigation per year, since they would have to travel 104,500 more nautical miles”.
Therefore, “the only two reasonable connection options between the Green Islands and Tenerife are the ports of Los Cristianos or Fonsalía,” he explains.
In the event that Los Cristianos is chosen, “it must be considered that it currently presents operational problems, which will worsen in the future, given the projections of passenger, vehicle and freight traffic analyzed in the report. Already today there are occasional but frequent saturations in the boarding and disembarking esplanade of the ferries, which adds to the problems derived from traffic congestion on Avenida de Chayofita and in the connection with the TF-1, a problem that, Although it is generated by local traffic, it fully affects the port, especially the departure of vehicles when disembarking ”.
In addition, Los Cristianos has deficits in the number and dimensions of the only two berths it has, since the lengths of several ships that operate in the port are greater than the length of the docks. The report considers that “to solve these problems it would be necessary to build an outer basin, which implies invading the Special Conservation Zone, and solving the traffic problems of Chayofita Avenue and the connection with the TF-1”.
In the event that the port of Fonsalía is chosen, “we consider that a new project should be processed with a design based on the principle of sustainable development. In other words, of the dimensions strictly necessary for the objective to be achieved, since the inalienable need for development and economic progress of society must be combined with respect for the environment and the preservation of natural values ”. The document states that neither the fishing dock nor the dock for docking cruise ships are justified, nor is it justified to invest public money in a sports dock, which, if technically, economically and environmentally feasible, would be perfectly buildable by private initiative. “All this would reduce to less than half the budget of the current project of 2010 of Fonsalía”, it includes.
“The option of the current project would be possible, with a budget of 203 million euros in 2010, but, based on the principle of sustainable development, we cannot recommend it,” he says.
