“Today we won the lottery jackpot one day ahead of schedule.” This is how optimistic Mari Brito, mayoress of Candelaria, was with the definitive impetus for the execution of the rehabilitation of the Plaza de la Patrona de Canarias, a project that began in 2010 and which remained in the drawer of the Cabildo until 2015, when Mandatory reports began to be requested from Costs, Patrimony and Mobility.
After the obligatory tweaks to the initial project of the Eustaquio Martínez -the underground car park and the waterfall in the Tapia ravine have been suppressed, for example-, yesterday Pedro Martín confirmed the financial commitment of the Cabildo of a multi-year agreement 19 million euros to start the works in the first half of 2023, with two million in the island budget for that year.
The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, valued the importance of this work, “with which we respond to a historical debt with the City Council and with the citizenry. “A symbolic space for Tenerife, one of the most visited on the island as a permanent place of pilgrimage, which required this action,” said Martín. In addition, he indicated that “today we come to set dates, not just proposals. In February the project will go out to tender and in the first half of the year we hope to have the tender resolved so that we can start with the long-awaited and necessary works”.
“We have spared no effort. The Cabildo will contribute 19 million euros to the works, five million euros more than the initial budget, marked at 14″, added Martín, who clarified that “the item will be financed on a multi-year basis, in parallel with the development of the different phases of the project, an ambitious and complex action that we estimate can come to an end in three or four years”.
essential support
Brito valued the impulse of the Government of Pedro Martín in the Cabildo, which “has been fundamental, key for us to be here today. We will remain very pending so that the tender and award of the work is carried out in this first four-month period of the year 2023 ”. The municipal councilor appeared at the press conference in which the entire municipal government group was present, who extended her thanks to all the people who have joined to make this project a reality, especially the architect Eustaquio Martínez and the technician Territorial Planning of the Cabildo, Pía Oramas.
Pedro Martín detailed some of the actions planned in the project. Specifically, action will be taken on some 19,425 square meters of surface area, in three areas surrounding the Basilica: the promenade (3,431 square meters), the Plaza de la Patrona (13,640 square meters) and the Plaza de los Artesanos (2,354 square meters). ). Among the outstanding works, Martín reviewed the construction of a ramp building in the Plaza de la Patrona, which will house a sacred museum, a multifunctional room and a tourist office, among other uses. He also indicated that the square and the current San Blas promenade and Cueva de Los Camellos will be resurfaced, and Antón Guanche street will be pedestrianized, transforming it into a linear square at its upper end, eliminating the parking lots of about Square.
Mari Brito stressed that “the action will coincide with the improvement of sanitation and hydraulic connections throughout this space, which will include the canalization of the La Arena ravine and the pipes of the regional sanitation system. Many of them will go under the plaza.”