The Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, Sebastián Franquis, has approved a project to execute a double tunnel that connects Mesa Mota with La Gorgolana (Tegueste), aimed at decongesting the Vía de Ronda de La Laguna, and which will involve an investment of almost 80 million euros.
This is a step before the project is submitted to public information and all the necessary environmental reports are required before bidding for the works, called TF-5, La Laguna road network; Section: Connection with the TF-13, Mesa Mota-Gorgolana tunnel.
In a statement, the Ministry indicates that it will be possible to alleviate the passage of more than 20,000 vehicles that daily cross the Vía de Ronda Lagunera coming from the north and the coast and that usually cause congestion at the height of Las Canteras.
The technical solution that the Ministry has established, following the precepts of Tenerife’s island planning, is to build a double tunnel of just over a kilometer that connects Mesa Mota with Gorgolana, and redirect all traffic from the northern region through it.
The tunnel links two sections of the TF-13, eliminating the passage through Las Canteras and the Las Mercedes junction, thus completing the connection of the Vía de Ronda with the Tegueste area under the Mesa Mota or La Gorgolana mountain.
With the new project, a new two-kilometre road will be created, with three intersections or roundabouts in Mesa Mota, Gorgolana and Las Mercedes, and a double tunnel of 1,050 meters with two lanes in each direction and a road speed of 80 kilometers per hour.
With this new tunnel, not only is the Vía de Ronda de La Laguna decongested, but more than eight minutes are also saved on the route currently taken by vehicles that access the metropolitan area from the northern region, according to the note.
The planned tunnel eliminates the passage through Las Canteras for all traffic coming from Tegueste, Tejina, Valleguerra, Bajamar and Punta del Hidalgo to the metropolitan area highway, that is, more than 20,000 vehicles per day.
The General Directorate of Infrastructures of the Canary Islands Government has promoted this solution in the last two years, which has been agreed with the technical services of the Cabildo de Tenerife and the municipalities of San Cristóbal de La Laguna and Tegueste.
The project is included in the Special Territorial Plan for the Management of the Road System of the Metropolitan Area of the island of Tenerife and included in Annex I of the Agreement signed between the Ministry of Public Works and the Public Administration of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands regarding Highways 2018-2027.
Once the Mesa Mota project has been technically approved, the Ministry of Public Works will publish the public information about it in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands (BOC) in the coming days and proceed to start the process to request a simplified environmental impact statement before the competent bodies. The objective now set by the Ministry is to tender this work, with an estimated execution period of 36 months, at the end of this year or at the beginning of 2024.
