The Popular Party proposes to provide bike lane to the TF-21 highway, which runs between the municipalities of La Orotava and Santa Úrsula. To do this, it asks the Cabildo to modify the project to improve this road in order to include the proposal and, in addition, provide sidewalks to the section of almost five kilometers that passes through such emblematic places as the Humboldt Lookout. The approved investment is around two million euros. The counselor Manuel Fernández announces that the PP will promote similar initiatives in the town councils of both municipalities.
Fernández explains that the Cabildo project alludes to the need to increase road safety due to the high traffic density. With such an award, he is surprised that it is not contemplated to enable sidewalks and the bike lane in the section on which the work is going to be carried out. “The problem is that the island government does not plan based on the demands and needs of road infrastructures, but makes a cut and paste of projects that are in the drawers, from previous mandates,” he says.
Taking into account that the Cabildo will make a significant investment to improve this road, «we understand that the logical thing is that the project be completed with sidewalks and a bike lane, with the aim not only of improving road safety in the area, but also of serving the needs of the users of this highway », reflects the representative of the PP. Fernández assures these needs «have been made manifest on numerous occasions by the representatives of the Popular Party, both in La Orotava and in Santa Úrsula, since numerous pedestrians and cyclists».
The popular councilor insists that, “in general, Tenerife lacks an adequate network of bike lanes that allows us to emerge as a place that facilitates and enhances outdoor sports in safe conditions.” For the PP, “it is not admissible that when we have the opportunity to do so, the competent institution (in this case, the Cabildo) does not do it.”
It should be remembered that last night, from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., the Cabildo began to resurface the section of the North highway (TF-5) that runs between Buen Paso, in Icod de los Vinos, and Los Realejos. These works are part of the comprehensive rehabilitation of the road surface that the Island Corporation has been developing since April and is due to end in the same month of next year.
Enrique Arriaga, insular counselor for Roads, recalls that it is a “very important” work to which the Cabildo allocates 12 million euros. The works that began yesterday are carried out at night “to minimize the inconvenience and risk to road users.” In fact, the vice president of the island administration explains that every night the resurfacing of almost a kilometer will be carried out. This planning further reduces the effect on drivers.
Technical conditions
Among the technical issues to take into account, the insular director of Roads, Tomás Félix García, also highlights the fact that to carry out the work between Icod de los Vinos and Los Realejos «it is essential to close a lane to traffic, allowing traffic to transit in which it is free and with alternative circulation ”.
The resurfacing of this section of the North highway is part of the third phase of the works projected for the rehabilitation of the TF-5 road surface, after work has already been done between Padre Anchieta (La Laguna) and the entrance to Santa Cruz de Tenerife, as well as between Padre Anchieta and the Tenerife North-City of La Laguna airport.
