José Luis Delgado, general director of Road Infrastructures of the Government of the Canary Islands, told this newspaper that the great work on the false tunnel on the TF-1, between the roundabout of Playa de Las Américas (Siam Mall) and Playa Fañabé, suffers a delay due to the complaint of a construction company that lost the tender for the award of the same. “The works were scheduled to begin on January 4, but it could not be when this complaint was made. We hope that the Canary Islands Government Contracting Tribunal will respond within a month and in March we will be able to start the work, essential for mobility in that tourist area, when a false tunnel similar to the one on Tres de Mayo is built in the capital of Tenerife” , he commented yesterday on Onda Tenerife.
This work, budgeted around 100 million euros, will allow vehicles going to the so-called tourist city to do so through an upper boulevard, while the lower part will remain only for those who use the TF-1 until connecting, for For example, with the island ring road, which, according to Delgado, once completed – the Erjos tunnel and the San Juan de la Rambla-Los Realejos section – will allow 30,000 vehicles to subtract from the 110,000 that currently use the TF-5 to connect with the southern highway.
The general director of Road Infrastructures, who was more optimistic than the UTE technicians who are carrying out the Erjos tunnel, indicated that he hopes it will be finished -one kilometer of the five it has to go- is missing before March 2025, and even He predicts that the two mouths opened by El Tanque and Santiago del Teide “will meet before June, probably in May.” In addition, he opted for the construction of two outer lanes that will connect the tunnel with the links to the north and south, and also announced that the fourth lane, downhill, is planned from the El Bicho tunnel to the Fonsalía link . “Nobody would understand that it wasn’t like that,” he commented.
Regarding other planned works, Delgado indicated that the construction projects for the third lane of the TF-1 between San Isidro and Playa de Las Américas will be delivered in June, while acknowledging that the expansion from Arafo to San Isidro “will take more time.” He also noted that “fortunately this section is less collapsed than the other, although the reconsideration act began three weeks ago and the companies have an 18-month delivery period for the project”, anticipating, yes, that the the new connection of El Puertito de Güímar with the TF-1 as soon as possible, because it recognizes “the insecurity that exists on the current bridge”.
For Delgado, all these works are important, but he considered the San Juan de la Rambla-Los Realejos section and the La Laguna ring road “essential” to “balance and balance” traffic throughout the Island.