Yesterday, the Contracting Board of the Council of La Laguna proposed awarding the canalization project of the La Carnicería ravine in the Gonzaliández section, between El Roque road and the Palace of Justice, to Asch Infraestructuras y Servicios SA. The approved budget for this project is 10,233 million euros with an execution period of 21 months from the contract formalization. Initially, there were seven eligible bidders for the tender, and the City Council had set aside 14.2 million euros for the works.
The mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, expressed his excitement over what he sees as “a crucial step towards the start of one of the main planned actions in the Works area for this term, as the ravine’s canalization is essential for the construction of the future municipal market in Plaza del Adelantado.”
The mayor is confident that the works will proceed as planned within the set timelines so they can meet the long-awaited demand from La Laguna society.
Councilor for Works, Ángel Chinea, commented, “This is a highly significant and technically complex intervention, which has undergone an extensive administrative process that is finally coming to fruition.” Chinea explained, “The project will address the current water channeling issues behind the court building and will allow us to design the market project with all necessary guarantees, including the parking area and the adjacent plaza.”
Chinea also highlighted that the project’s development required a substantial number of hydraulic and geotechnical studies, along with structural calculations to ensure compliance with the Tenerife Hydrological Plan and guarantee its urban integration, especially to avoid impacting the Palace of Justice and the existing parking area. The pipeline execution project, endorsed by the Hydraulic Infrastructure and Hydraulic Resources departments of the Tenerife Island Water Council, outlines the specifics of the new canalization.
In 2020, the La Laguna City Council proposed a new path for the La Carnicería ravine canalization, which, although longer in distance, avoided impacts on other properties and the expropriations required by the previous plan. In response, the Council commissioned a revision of the initial project and subsequently the drafting of the execution plan to proceed with the new canal works.
In July 2021, the Governing Board authorised the contracting for the construction and project management, which received final approval in March 2023 and was tendered in December of the same year.
The canalization works pose significant technical challenges due to the terrain’s nature, necessitating special foundations and piling, alongside slope consolidation tasks. Through this project, the aim is to extend the works carried out on the canalization section behind the Palace of Justice. Additionally, this intervention will accommodate a section capable of managing the flow associated with a return period of 500 years.