The Urban Planning Management of La Laguna has sent a report to the Ministry of Public Works of the Government of the Canary Islands with a series of proposals to incorporate into the drafting of the layout of the future variant of the TF-5 and which is already being worked on. .
Thus, from La Laguna it is requested that the definitive route of this variant, which goes from Guamasa to Guajara, respects the population enclaves that could be affected as much as possible, either assuming the route foreseen in the PGO or, if this is not possible, that The road runs in a tunnel so that it does not affect surface dwellings, as well as respects the agricultural land and the expectations of growth of the municipality towards the south, taking into account the routes of San Miguel, San Bartolomé and San Francisco de Paula del current PGO.
This was informed yesterday by the mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, and the councilor for Land Management and director counselor of the Urban Planning Management, Santiago Pérez, who reiterated the position of the local government in favor of this project, “that it is a basic solution for the traffic jams that this highway suffers daily as it passes through our municipality ”. “And it also supposes an alternative much more respectful with the environment and with much less impact on agricultural land than the Vía Exterior that at the time the CC government intended to carry out and that we completely rejected”, defended the Mayor.
Likewise, Gutiérrez stressed that this project will also “allow us, in the long run, to undertake the old aspiration of the municipality of the underground of the TF-5 as it passes through San Benito, so that we can heal that great scar that divides our town”.
The Urban Planning Management report responds to the letter sent by the Government to the City Council last October, and in which it requested documentation on the PGO lagunero and on the infrastructures of the scope of action, since the project of the layout of this variant.
In said document, the local Town Hall asks the Government that “the final route respects as much as possible the population enclaves that could be affected, among others La Costurera, and, if that is not possible, that the road runs in a tunnel so that it does not affect surface dwellings ”, explained Santiago Pérez, who stressed, together with the mayor, that this would not mean expropriating the land above it. Likewise, “our proposal is that at no time does the route hinder the communication routes or the expectations of growth towards the south, this will require that it run in a trench to be able to maintain the entire road system and communication between one area and another of the city ”, added Pérez. This means that the variant would go below the ground level but in the open sky, and the current tracks with which it intersects would continue to pass over the variant, forming as underpasses.
Regarding these suggestions, the councilor pointed out that “there has been an exchange of impressions and there is a completely receptive attitude on the part of the Government and on the part of the Cabildo.” Once the draft of the TF-5 variant is drawn up, he explained that “a procedure begins in which it will have to be submitted to an environmental assessment, summon public information and ask the affected institutions, including La Laguna, to take a position. , and I assure you that if the Government does not meet our expectations, we will do so ”.
On the other hand, Santiago Pérez recalled that the TF-5 variant is “a road with its own entity, thus set out in the Island Development Plan since 2002″, and wanted to make it clear that, although some call it bypass, ” the road that is going to be built now is not a bypass ”, which is not included in the insular plan either. Likewise, he insisted that this variant is not the Vía Exterior, “and whoever tried to confuse one thing with the other is CC”, emphasized the mayor of Urbanism.
