The state of the La Unión Footbridge or Don Nicolás Pérez Hernández Footbridge, in La Vera, motivates the complaints of residents and users of the municipalities of La Orotava, Puerto de la Cruz and Los Realejos. They assure that incivility and lack of maintenance is deteriorating a singular and necessary infrastructure. The bad smell derived from the urination of domestic animals whose owners walk through this step, in addition to the “sporadic” presence of excrement in this space, together with the deterioration of the elements of this structure are the aspects that generate protest.
“It is as unfortunate as it is shameful that from its inauguration to the present day the catwalk has not had any type of maintenance,” they denounce. At that point, they point out that “the rust and the appearance of deterioration derive from the fact that this walkway has not received a single action for its conservation in the almost seven years it has been in operation.”
La Vera is a town located in three municipalities of the northern region. It has the peculiar condition of belonging to three municipalities: Puerto de la Cruz, La Orotava and Los Realojos. At the end of July 2015, the new footbridge that unites the residents of both parts of the town, separated by the course of the San Felipe ravine, opened.
This infrastructure was inaugurated seven years ago and required an investment of 354,000 euros
The construction of the La Unión Footbridge or the Don Nicolás Pérez Hernández Footbridge required an estimated investment of 354,000 euros, contributed by the Cabildo of Tenerife. The work consisted of replacing an obsolete infrastructure in poor condition with the current one, then valued as “more functional and aesthetic that will improve communication between the two areas of the neighborhood.” Even then it was “an old neighborhood demand, for which the citizens had been waiting for more than eight years.”
Those who were then president of the Island Corporation, Carlos Alonso; Mayor of Puerto de la Cruz, Lope Afonso, and his counterpart in the municipality of La Orotava, Francisco Linares, inaugurated the walkway on July 23, 2015. It so happens that its placement required seven months of work by the than the Tenerife Island Water Council (Ciatf).
a symbolic place
The importance and symbolism of this infrastructure was recorded at that time, a meeting attended by a hundred residents of La Vera. The mayor of Porto, Lope Afonso, called this walkway “the bridge of union and neighborhood harmony”, while the mayor of Orostan highlighted the fact that its commissioning implies “that borders no longer exist in La Vera”.
With such background, the neighbors, who today show their concern because the deteriorating situation is reproduced and in the face of the “lack of diligence of the administrations to adopt measures”, make an appeal “to the authorities” so that they “apply the necessary corrective measures ». Among them, place the signaling “to avoid uncivic situations derived from walks with pets.” The group, likewise, takes the opportunity to “call these neighbors to carry bags and to respect that place through which many pass and walk.”
