The Canary Islands Government has in tender the contracts for the drafting of the layout project and construction of the third lane of the Güímar-San Isidro section (with an investment of 1,955,632 euros) and the Oroteanda-Las Américas route (549,114 euros), the drafting of the project and work from Las Américas to Fañabé (6,707,117 euros) and, in a few days, it will also put out to tender the drafting of San Isidro-Oroteanda section project (505,460 euros). In addition, within the San Isidro-Las Américas section, the works of the Oroteanda-Las Chafiras link are being carried out, which contemplate the creation of a roadway wide enough to house the third lane. This work, budgeted at 28 million euros, is 45% complete and will end at the beginning of 2023. There are almost 138 million insured expenses.
The Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Regional Executive, Sebastian Franquis, announced yesterday in the Parliament of the Canary Islands that, before the end of the summer, the contracting of the drafting of the project for the three sections between Güímar and Playa de Las Américas with which the Autopista del Sur (TF-1) will be put out to tender. It will have a third lane in each direction in 80 kilometers of its route, adding to the 25 that are in use from Santa Cruz to the Valle de Güímar Industrial Estate, the 55 kilometers of new construction from said point to the Arona-Adeje limit. The counselor explained that, although it does not include that third lane, the cut-and-cover tunnel of the Las Américas-Fañabé section “will be a great relief for traffic in the area.”
In the Official Gazette
Franquis assured that “with the planning of the third lane of the TF-1 that we are carrying out, we are going to expand the capacity of almost the entire Autopista del Sur, at least in its most populated and most frequented nuclei.” He recalled that the TF-1 is a 103-kilometre road, with almost half a century of existence and that it only has three lanes in each direction from Santa Cruz to Güímar, a work that was completed in 2009. «That is why we are now promoting the projects to take the third rail to Las Américas and that is why we have put three sections out to tender, and all this that I am reporting here can be verified on the Contracting Platform. Unlike others, this Government, before reporting its projects in the media, publishes them in the official gazette».
The regional counselor, in response to a question from the deputy of the Socialist Parliamentary Group Omar López, assured that the Ministry commits an initial investment of more than 137.7 million euros in drafting projects and in the execution of several of these works, actions with which the TF-1 will gain about 55 kilometers of third rail, from the municipality of Güímar to Las Américas. Adding these new kilometers of third rail to the 24 kilometers that already exist from the capital to Güimar, the Autopista del Sur will have three lanes in each direction in 80 kilometers “in the near future”, that is, it will be covered with a third rail for almost a 80% of the TF-1 «and the traffic problems in the most conflictive areas of the route are resolved».
response to needs
Franquis was aware that along this route the most important growths of the Island have been taking place from the tourist, commercial and industrial point of view, growths that have not been consistent with those of the TF-1, hence that this infrastructure has the traffic difficulties that it has at the moment. He alluded to the prevailing malaise due to the constant retentions, for which “in these three years we have given a boost to these projects, fundamentally planning the actions to be undertaken, because it is impossible to do a work without first having the projects”, said Sebastián Franquis.
