The first module of the large pedestrian walkway that will completely change traffic flow on the island is now in Tenerife, altering the Padre Anchieta roundabout, one of the most congested points on the North Highway (TF-5). Operations to unload this 10-ton piece at the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife began around 18:00 on Thursday after the ship Andalucía Exprés arrived at the chicharrero port from the Port of Seville after 17:00.
Thus begins an unprecedented deployment on the island that has required setting up a special operation by sea and land, as this first module alone weighs 10 tons, is over 30 meters long, and has a curvilinear shape. The remodeling of the Padre Anchieta roundabout and this component, which is part of the intervention and will be repeated with each of the 10 modules to arrive in the coming months – four others are already completed in Seville – constitute a project carried out by the Tenerife Island Council.
Rosa Dávila, president of the Tenerife Island Council who followed the operation from 18:00, stated that the large pedestrian walkway will be an “icon” in Tenerife’s history and will become one of the solutions by the island corporation to ease traffic congestion on the North Highway and the accesses to La Laguna and El Rosario.
The first module of the grand Padre Anchieta pedestrian walkway has arrived at the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife this Thursday afternoon. / Carsten W. Lauritsen
The transport of the first of the 11 giant pieces of the walkway will block part of Santa Cruz de Tenerife from Thursday night onwards. As reported by the capital city council of Tenerife, which is preparing a special operation for this procedure, traffic on several city arteries will be affected by the procession.
The dimensions of the structure require complex maneuvers on the roads, with some sections of the procession moving in the opposite direction to the usual flow. All this will start from ten o’clock at night, although the schedule is approximate depending on everything going as planned.
The upcoming great Padre Anchieta walkway at the primary entrance to the historical center of La Laguna. / E.D.
The transport of the module will be very slow due to the heavy load of 128 tons. The truck will depart from TF-11 in the Glorieta de Las Olas area, continuing through the Coastal Way Tunnel; TF-1; Juan Amigó Lara Tunnel (Tres de Mayo) and finally heading up TF-5 to the Padre Anchieta junction, specifically to the roundabout where the module will be placed. The transport of the walkway module will require temporary and brief traffic stops.
In the following weeks, the other 10 modules will arrive to complete the assembly of the large pedestrian walkway. It is a project that will revolutionize traffic in Tenerife with a solution never before used in the island’s road network: a pedestrian walkway in the form of a 314-meter ring to avoid traffic jams at the roundabout – the main entrance to the historic center of La Laguna via the North Highway (TF-5) – and to ensure the safety of the many pedestrians, mainly students from the University of La Laguna studying in the faculty buildings in the area.
Arrival this Thursday afternoon of the first module of the large pedestrian walkway that will be constructed at the Padre Anchieta roundabout. / Carsten W. Lauritsen
The works at this significant roundabout of La Laguna began in November 2021 and the construction work was awarded to the company Obras Huarte Lain for 8.8 million Euros. The project consists of a continuous curved beam in the shape of a ring approximately 100 meters in diameter, supported by a system of individual supports, with a square adjacent to the current parking lot of the Faculty of Biology, University of La Laguna.
