The Canary Islands Governmentas revealed by José Luis Delgado, General Director of Road Infrastructure, is studying a provisional solution to the traffic jams that occur at the entrance and exit roundabouts of the Güímar Valley Polygon. It consists of converting that area into two turbo-roundabouts, which would gain one more lane and alleviate the situation, where carriers who come daily to pick up or deliver merchandise with their trucks and users of up to three large commercial surfaces, which will soon be four.
Precisely, the presence of these hypermarkets around the two roundabouts, to the right and left of the motorway trunk, has been, according to José Luis Delgado, the trigger for the congestion in that area, because “the construction without their own access roads, all converging on the highway, without a mobility plan, something that does not happen, for example, in the area of large surfaces such as Alcampo in La Laguna”, explained the general director. In addition, he demanded “more vigilance from the municipalities when granting the license.” At this point, Tomás García, insular director of Highways, acknowledged that “these shopping centers are legalized and I don’t know how they have done it, but they meet the limit of the regulations,” he clarified.
Tomorrow José Luis Delgado will meet in a meeting with the representatives of Carreteras del Cabildo, something that usually happens once a month. In it, alternatives will be discussed to improve traffic at the entrance to the Polígono in the Arafo area, given that “it is already producing a stopper on the highway, with the danger that this represents,” said Delgado, recalling what that happened in Las Chafiras, “until we were able to open the new links and the highway no longer collapses.”
The General Director of Road Infrastructure recognized that it is a matter that worries him, because “the businessmen of the Polígono have told me that there are already carriers who refuse to carry merchandise, as they waste a lot of time in those queues”.
For this reason, shortly, he will request a meeting with the three mayors of the Güímar Valley “if the general plans have to be modified”, at least for this provisional solution and the idea of removing the traffic that enters and leaves the highway by other branches to be created and not because of the only ones that currently exist.
The third lane of the TF-1 between Arafo and San Isidro will be drawn up this year
“We will draft the third rail project between Arafo and San Isidro this year to put it out to tender as soon as possible and, later, with the environmental procedures and others, we must wait around 18 months,” advanced José Luis Delgado. In addition, he recalled that it is a 50-year-old highway and that the current links will have to be changed, as well as “building new tunnels in Güímar, where now, obviously, those three lanes do not fit,” he explained.
Regarding the possibility of finishing the unfinished bridge of the Polígono Valle de Güímar to relieve heavy traffic in that area, Delgado stated that it “does not comply with the regulations to be an access to the highway, since it does not have the distance of 2.5 kilometers with the next one, but it can be used as access between the current Industrial Estate and the one that Candelaria wants to develop in Lomo del Camello”, he stated.
Tomás García, insular director of Roads, told DIARIO DE AVISOS that “the first Bus-VAO that we are going to open in Tenerife before 2023 will be the one that connects Arafo with Santa Cruz, only in this sense and not in both”. This surprised José Luis Delgado, reminding him that “the highway is of regional interest and any use must be authorized by the Government of the Canary Islands. We will have to sit down and talk about it, but we don’t have too many lanes”, remarked the CEO.
