The area of highways Council of Tenerife works with the goal of reopen the access road to Punta de Teno (TF-445), in Buenavista del Norte, before next summer. The emergency works, which began in January 2022, have suffered delays due to bad weather, the state of the structures and problems with the supply of materials, but now, with everything necessary already on the island, the eyes set on the next month of May. The island director of Roads of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Tomás Félix García, recalls that “the work and the environment are extremely complex.”
Tomás Félix García highlights that “the work and the environment are extremely complex”
«In an emergency work, the deadline is still an estimate, and even more so when we are talking about a project with the complexity of improving safety on this road”, explains García. He details that the operators have encountered many problems when starting the work: «The deterioration of the protection structures was greater than initially expected and the war in Ukraine and the carriers’ strike have generated a significant delay in the arrival of some very specific materials”, emphasizes the insular director.
Initially, the works were expected to last three months and be completed around March 7. That date was first moved to March 31 and now to May 10. In Roads they prefer to be cautious and, according to what has happened in recent months, they set the goal of reopening in the summer season, the most important for this area.
We hope to be able to reopen it soon. All the material is here, the work is proceeding at a suitable pace and we keep pushing to run as fast as possible. However, the conditions are what they are and it is not possible to put more people to work than they are,” insists García.
From the area of Roads Those affected by the closure of the TF-442, which has already lasted four months, are urged to collect all the necessary documentation to justify the losses caused by these delays, “if any.” The bus and taxi public transport service is suspended until further notice; Access on foot or by bicycle is also not allowed, and on this occasion, due to the risk of an accident, workers in the agricultural and fishing sector in the area have not been allowed to pass either. Excursions from active tourism companies can only access Teno by sea.
The inspections carried out in the area evidenced the need for immediate action to replace several elements of the safety mesh, due to its deterioration as a result of the weather conditions in the area, very close to the sea. The large damage detected could cause “serious landslides and generate a safety problem for road users,” as the Minister of Highways, Enrique Arriaga, warned at the time.
