The first solution to reduce the traffic jam in one of the main black spots on the TF-5 Northern motorway, the Padre Anchieta lagoon roundabout, is about to crystallize. Pedro Martín, president of the Cabildo de Tenerifeassured yesterday that the undergrounding of the TF-24 will start operating imminently, in the coming weeks, once the works are heading towards their final stretch.
This branch will connect the La Esperanza highway (TF-24) with the Northern highway in the direction of Santa Cruz without having to go through the Padre Anchieta roundabout. It is a detour of 120 meters in length, of which 40 meters will circulate through the tunnel. When it starts up, it will help ease traffic at the Padre Anchieta roundabout by preventing around 4,000 vehicles that circulate every day on the TF-24 with the aim of joining the TF-5, detailed Pedro Martín. .
pedestrian safety
The president of the Cabildo added, during the visit he made yesterday to these works together with the insular vice-president and Mobility councilor, Enrique Arriaga, and the mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, that “in this way the security of the pedestrians and drivers who follow this itinerary. “The work has been delayed for three months due to problems in the supply of materials at a European level, but it is now being completed and will mean a relief for one of the most congested points of the Northern motorway”explained the president of the Tenerife socialists.
€7.9 million
The work, which was awarded in July 2021, has had a budget of 7.9 million euros. During its execution, 61,953 cubic meters of debris have been extracted. In addition, the tunnel has 1,590 linear meters of permanent anchoring and state-of-the-art security facilities, explained the technicians during a new visit by the authorities to the works.
The other solution: the catwalk
The diversion of the TF-24 to prevent the vehicles that circulate on it from converging on the Padre Anchieta roundabout is not the only solution that this work will provide at one of the most collapsed points, not only on the Northern highway, but throughout Tenerife, with a daily average of 50,000 vehicles just at the roundabout and more than 110,000 on the motorway. The other is the footbridge over the roundabout to facilitate pedestrian traffic, especially from the large university community, which is expected to be finished next October.
Pedro Martín assured that the first pieces of the different modules will arrive shortly, the pillars that are built on the Peninsula, a meticulous work that will allow the entire structure to fit together. This walkway will modify the image of the Anchieta roundabout, an infrastructure with a design awarded with the 2019 National Innovation and Design Awards, granted by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain.
The proposed solution is a continuous curved beam in the shape of a ring over the roundabout of approximately 100 meters in diameter, supported by a system of supports, with a square attached to the current parking lot of the Faculty of Biology, of the University of La Laguna (ULL). The total length of the ring is 314 meters.
ADDITIONAL wORKS
In turn, a series of complementary works are contemplated, such as new sidewalks adapted to pedestrian traffic, the landscaping of the surroundings and the conditioning and urbanization of its accesses and bordering areas in the area of Avenida de la Trinidad in the area of the Interchange of transport and a new square in the area of the Faculty of Biology.
Enrique Arriaga, vice president of the Cabildo, has detailed that the construction of this infrastructure, which will cost about 10 million euros, “It will mean an increase in road safety in this important link of the insular network and the improvement of road traffic in the area that registers very high volumes of traffic, both pedestrian and vehicle.”
The footbridge construction work is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. The island president recalled that it is a “complicated” action due to the large size of the pieces and the difficulty of transporting them to the Island. He clarified, however, that he is going to provide “solutions”, especially related to the safety of pedestrians.
