The beginning of the end of queues

The Government of the Canary Islands assures that in these four years the foundations have been laid so that in the coming years, the traffic jams on the two highways of the Island will go down in history. In about 15 months, the section of the Insular Ring between El Tanque and Santiago del Teide will open, which will remove some 30,000 vehicles every day from the TF-5, and it is expected that the La Laguna ring road will end the worst of the queues in the North.

The Department of Public Works of the Government of the Canary Islands maintains that in this 2019-2023 term, the foundations have been laid so that in the coming years the traffic jams on the North (TF-5) and South (TF-1) highways will definitively disappear.. The general director of Road Infrastructure, José Luis Delgado (PSOE), hopes that the results will begin to be noticed in the North in just 15 months, when the opening of the Erjos tunnel and the new section of the island ring between El Tanque and Santiago del Teide remove every day 30,000 of the 110,000 vehicles that circulate on the TF-5 in the area around Padre Anchieta. The almost definitive blow to the queues that have been suffered for more than 30 years on the Northern highway will come, according to Delgado, with the entry into use of the La Laguna ring road, which will absorb another 60,000 of the 110,000 vehicles that now pass through the TF-5, through the urban fabric of La Laguna, which will be left with a daily traffic of barely 18% of the current one.

These two works, one in the final stretch of its execution and the other close to going out to tender, will reduce the daily traffic through Padre Anchieta from 110,000 vehicles to just 20,000, according to studies carried out by the Ministry of Public Works. José Luis Delgado is optimistic and is confident that the queues in the North “will begin to thin out as soon as the section of the island ring road between El Tanque and Santiago del Teide comes into use, which will allow drivers to save about 30 minutes compared to the time currently needed to circulate between Buen Paso and Santiago del Teide». And there is very little left to check if Delgado’s forecasts are fulfilled, since this section is expected to be completed in the summer of 2024. There are barely 750 meters left to connect the two sides of the tunnels that are being excavated in Erjos. The date of June 15 is considered so that the two mouths come together.

Delgado underlines the work carried out by Obras Públicas with a team of professionals that has doubled since 2019: “We have gone from 12 to 24 engineers, we also have twice as many lawyers and there is a program of employment temporary to maintain a pace that is unprecedented. This work has made it possible to execute, tender, project or start planning more than 60 works, among which are the 14 that will change road mobility in Tenerife in the coming decades and which are detailed below.

Laguna ring road. Delgado stresses that it is in the construction project phase, has an environmental impact statement, the public exhibition has concluded and he has weeks left to receive favorable reports from AENA and Policy Territory of the Council. With these two documents, the final approval of the project would be obtained and it could go to the contracting phase to start the bidding for its construction. It has a layout of about 6 kilometers, of which 4 kilometers pass through a tunnel. Its cost is estimated at around 355 million euros and it will be executed before the third lane of the TF-5 from La Orotava.

Third lane of the TF-5. This project to provide the TF-5 with three lanes in each direction between La Orotava and Guamasa is already on public display. It is a work valued at around 339 million which, when tendered, will have a five-year execution period. There are 17 kilometers that cross the municipalities of La Orotava, Santa Úrsula, La Victoria and La Matanza de Acentejo, El Sauzal and Tacoronte, which has already been against the route. When this period ends, you must obtain the environmental impact authorization and, subsequently, the construction project. Some procedures that could take about two more years. If there are no delays, this work could be completed by 2030 at the earliest. All links will have to be demolished and the works will have to be carried out with the motorway still in service.

Guamasa connection. One of the main problems that Public Works has had to solve in this mandate is the non-existence of projects for the connection of the future six lanes of the TF-5 with the La Laguna ring road, in Guamasa. Delgado highlights the extraordinary complexity of this link, “where the six lanes of the TF-5 from La Orotava will meet, they will merge with the six lanes of the ring road. Six must pass under the TF-5 and exit in the middle and the three from one direction and the other from the TF-5 must open to make room. It is a very complicated junction, in which the highway has to be widened to practically 12 lanes.

Connection of Lora and Tamayo. It is the other complicated knot that has had to be resolved in this mandate. Here the TF-5, the Circunvalación de La Laguna and the TF-13 will come together in a space where viaducts and bridges will have to be erected to connect 8 lanes that must merge into six lanes that go towards the ring road that will surround the airport. «These two knots have made it necessary to coordinate both projects, because they are very complex engineering works that have never been seen before in Canary Islands, as they are confluences of high-capacity roads. In the United States they are used to those very complicated octopuses, but here we did not have infrastructures of this type, “concludes Delgado.

Additional lane Los Realejos. While work is being done on the definitive project for the only section of the Insular Ring that does not have one, between Los Realejos and Las Aguas, Public Works has opted for a project for an additional alternative overtaking lane. It is in the process of supervision to put it out to tender “in a maximum of one year.” The definitive and long-term solution of this section without a project requires European authorization and it seems that the only viable thing will be to execute it with tunnels to avoid damage to protected areas.

La Guancha Island Ring. The section of the Insular Ring between San Juan de la Rambla and Icod de los Vinos, through La Guancha, already has the environmental information process and the construction project is delivered, and in the supervision phase, so it can be tendered “before one month” and be awarded “before the end of the year”. The forecast is that it will be finished in four years, at the end of 2027. It will cost 175 million euros.

Erjos Tunnel. The stretch of the El Tanque-Santiago del Teide Island Ring is in its final stretch. It started in November 2019 and is expected to finish in 15 months, in July 2024. Its final cost will be around 256 million euros. For José Luis Delgado, “it will be the great work of unblocking”, which will make it possible to travel six kilometers in just 5 minutes. “When it opens, no one who lives between Tacoronte and Los Realejos will go south through La Laguna,” he stresses.

More lanes to Fonsalía. The project will be delivered shortly to public information so that the highway between Santiago del Teide and Fonsalía goes from three lanes to having five, with three uphill and two downhill.

TF-1 buried in Adeje. Between Fanabe and Playa de The Americas The tunnel work has already been awarded through the trunk of the highway, which will have three lanes below and two above (something similar to Tres de Mayo avenue). The work, worth 114 million euros, will begin to be executed shortly, when a conflict between companies participating in the contest is resolved.

The Americas-Oroteanda. On June 15, the project for the expansion of the TF-1 between Las Américas-Oroteanda must be delivered to end the queues that usually occur in this area. A third lane is added in each direction to the road and two collector roads that will directly connect centers such as Los Cristianos and Guaza without the need to enter the trunk of the highway. The same thing that is being carried out now in Las Chafiras-Oroteanda.

Oroteanda-San Isidro. This section of the TF-1, between Oroteanda and San Isidro, will be like the previous one and its project must also be delivered before June 15. It will have three lanes in each direction and collector roads parallel to the highway to channel part of the traffic.

Third lane San Isidro-Arafo. This is the longest-term project, although it is already in the drafting phase. It is about adding a third lane in each direction between San Isidro and Arafo. As in the TF-5, all the links will have to be demolished and that complicates its execution.

Link between TF-1 and TF-2. The reform of the connection between the TF-1 and the TF-2, in Saint Mary of the Sea, goes “with a little more delay”, but it is also in the forecast of Public Works. It has been awarded and work is already underway in its writing.

Mesa Mota Tunnel. These days the project for the tunnel under the Mesa Mota mountain, in La Laguna, which will channel the traffic from Tejina, Valle Guerra, Punta del Hidalgo and Bajamar to the coastal road, “without having to go up to Las Canteras” has been released to public information. ».