The Minister of Public Works, Housing and Mobility of the Government of the Canary Islands, Pablo Rodríguez, and the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, held a working meeting yesterday in which they established as priority works the construction of a third lane both in the North Highway (TF-5) and South Highway (TF-1), completion of the Chafiras-Oroteanda link and closure of the Erjos tunnel.
The meeting also included the regional vice-counselor for Infrastructures, Francisco González; the vice president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, José Miguel Ruano; the general director of Road Infrastructure of the Executive, Rosana Melián; the Island Councilor for Mobility, Eulalia García, and the CEO of Highways, Dámaso Artega.
Pablo Rodríguez reported that the Ministry will focus its efforts on the prioritization and planning of road projects on the island of Tenerife to provide effective solutions that allow responding to mobility problems.
The counselor also stressed the importance of maintaining a fluid dialogue and monthly meetings to “improve communication between the institutions and work together” with the aim of executing the works that are already underway and to be able to improve the performance times in response to the needs of the island.
“These next four years are key to the execution of the Highway Agreement, which ends in 2027. We are going to focus on carrying out the most urgent projects to tender and award the works as soon as possible,” said Rodríguez.
For her part, the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife stated that the meeting with the Ministry of Public Works is the “beginning of a new stage for the island, where dialogue, consensus and joint work will prevail, something that has not been the trend in the last four years”, he added.
In this sense, both considered that the expansion works of the TF-5 and TF-1, the completion of the Chafiras-Oroteanda link and the closure of the Erjos tunnel are “essential” projects to “end the serious congestion problems suffered by these roads, increasing their capacity and favoring the flow of traffic”.
Thus, Pablo Rodríguez recalled that several of these initiatives are already underway. On the one hand, the closure of the island ring, in the El Tanque-Santiago del Teide section, with the depth of the second tube of the Erjos tunnel; and, on the other, the false tunnel of the TF-1, between Las Américas-Fañabé, one of the main projects on the island of Tenerife that has already been awarded.
Rosa Dávila pointed out that, “traffic jams are not solved with the works, but with measures that we put in place to reduce the number of movements and vehicles that circulate. Are we going to solve the jams in the 90 days? Probably not, but what we will do is make decisions that are aimed at alleviating and in which we have found the predisposition of the agents involved and the collaboration of the Government of the Canary Islands ”she added.
The insular president emphasized the agreement reached with the Ministry, by which the insular Corporation may act in specific projects, even if it does not have powers, always under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Works. In total there are nine interventions in links in various areas of the Island whose works do not have a high cost, and can be finished quickly.
Specifically, it deals with the rearrangement of the link between TF-2 and TF-1; the rearrangement of the link between the TF-2 and the TF-5; the one that affects the connection of the TF-29 with the TF-5; the link between Los Cristianos and the TF-1; the reordering project for the Guaza junction on the TF-1 with the connection to the TF-66, TF-662, TF-565 and the Los Cristianos junction; the rearrangement of the Los Realejos junction on the TF-5; the rearrangement of the Los Rodeso airport link with the Northern highway and the TF-152 and TF-235 highways; and the last one, the Alcalá variant on the TF-47.
