SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 10 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, Sebastián Franquis, has asked the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda to carry out work on the four-kilometer section of the LP-2 buried by the volcanic flows in 2021 analyzes and studies of ground temperature similar to those that the Ministry already carried out prior to the works on the Carretera de la Costa, which are currently being carried out in the municipality of Tazacorte.
In this way, Minister Franquis has reiterated the commitment of the Ministry and the Government in the restitution of the LP-2 highway and places it at the center of public policies to restore normal mobility on the island of La Palma. The counselor wanted to recall that the LP-2 highway is included in the network of regional interest and constitutes the basic road axis of the southeast and southwest of the island.
Sebastián Franquis has made this request to the Ministry in order to prepare the future intervention that the Ministry plans to restore those four kilometers of the LP-2 when the terrain conditions allow it.
“Given the experience that your work team has acquired in the analysis and study of temperatures in the volcanic lava flow and the expected heat transfer from the ground to the highway platform and to the upper layers of the pavement due to the high temperatures it maintains the volcanic material through tastings and thermal probes, I would like to ask you to carry out these research works in the affected section of the LP-2 to verify the feasibility of its restitution”, collects the request that the counselor Franquis has sent to the Ministry.
The Canarian councilor has indicated that, at the time of considering the works that are now being carried out, the layout that rests on the Coastal Highway was chosen due to the presence of a lower casting power and, therefore, a lower temperature than this, at that time not being recommended, for technical reasons, the routes closest to the cone of the volcano, as is the case of the corridor where the LP-2 ran.
“Now, taking advantage of the experience and technical knowledge acquired in the execution of the current works, the only road in the world built on recent lava, the time has come to start the research work to determine the viability of the replacement of the LP- 2 by his old broker,” said Franquis.
The counselor believes that the levels of collaboration reached on the basis of the general protocol of action between the Ministry and the Council, to coordinate the measures to restore infrastructure in the road network of La Palma affected by the eruption of the volcano, and taking into account Royal Decree 20/2021 of October 5, by which urgent support measures are adopted to repair the damage caused by volcanic eruptions, it is entirely possible that the technicians of the Government of Spain carry out these preliminary studies to prepare the restitution of the LP-2, as the Minister of Public Works of the Canary Islands Government has promised on several occasions.
