SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE 10 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of Public Works for the Canary Islands Government, Pablo Rodríguez, acknowledged on Thursday that the section of the island ring road closure between El Tanque and Santiago del Teide will not be finalised by March, as initially planned.
“It is clear that the work will not be completed by March 2025, but we are looking towards its completion within this legislative term,” he stated during a parliamentary committee meeting in response to a query from Vox.
The minister also mentioned that the UTE, comprised of OHL, Excavaciones Bahíllo and Asfaltos Bahíllo, which did not win the contract and subsequently appealed through contentious-administrative proceedings, will be entitled to compensation for lost earnings, which will be sourced from the highway agreement funds.
Rodríguez acknowledged the “judicial setback” for the Government – the award was made by the Pacto de las Flores – but simultaneously appreciated the “effort” to establish legal certainty and to ensure that the ongoing works carried out by the current contractor, FCC, El Silbo and Syocsa-Inarsa, continued without interruption, marking “significant progress.”
The minister disclosed that a preliminary agreement has been reached with the UTE to cover the lost earnings and the costs incurred for submitting the tender, something that “is not a new development” and is mandated by law, even though contractors tend to have “higher expectations.”
“The fair approach is to state what is appropriate and not beyond what is reasonable, and what I have conveyed is not that they lack the right to claim, which they do, nor that the compensation is absent; what I indicated is that these funds will be deducted from the total budget of 1,473 million euros allocated for the road agreement,” he noted, emphasising that this situation will lead to fewer road tenders on the islands.
Paula Jover (Vox) sought “clarifications” from the minister regarding the “additional costs” associated with the project, stemming from the new contract and “extra” expenses arising from court decisions, requesting that generic statements be omitted.
The total budget for the project, which includes the construction of the Erjos tunnel – the longest in the Canary Islands, exceeds 263 million euros for a stretch of just over 11 kilometres connecting El Tanque with Santiago del Teide.
The Government anticipates a daily use of over 17,000 vehicles and an estimated reduction of approximately 20 minutes in travel time.
