“One hour to travel a kilometer”

Just two weeks ago the Tenerife Cabildo made public that it intended close access to the TF-5 in Guamasa in the Santa Cruz direction, a measure whose purpose, according to the corporation, is to alleviate traffic on the highway at peak times of the day.

The measure, which is in force temporarily, for two weeks, and only from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. from Monday to Friday, is a test to see if traffic on the highway is actually relieved. It consists of closing the junction with the TF-5 towards Santa Cruz at the roundabout on the TF-235 highway (in front of the El Búnker cafeteria) and diverting all traffic along that road, or along the main road, to the Airport. Los Rodeos, passing through several roundabouts, so that all users coming from El Ortigal, Guamasa, Garimba, El Portezuelo and Valle Guerra, among other places, have to join the TF-5 at a single point, the exit from the Airport.

The result this Wednesday, the day the detour was launched, was as predictable: traffic has been transferred to the TF-235 and TF-152 roads, where kilometer-long queues of cars have formed to access the highway .

As can be seen in the chambers of the Cabildo itself, those two roads have been the most affected by this measure.

On social networks this morning we could read the reactions of some users affected by this closure, who highlighted that in sections where it previously took 10 minutes to travel, it now takes almost an hour, and that the residents of Guamasa are the ones who are going to “pay” for the withholdings in the TF-5. However, others see improvement on the highway.