The works to secure the Las Bajas slope, in Güímar, andThey are temporarily paralyzed by decree of the mayor, Gustavo Pérez. The cause is the excess of the amount of the work certifications presented by the company to the City Council, which increases the cost of its execution by around one million euros compared to the budget for which these works were contracted.
Today there will be a meeting between the parties involved, as well as with municipal urban and legal technicians, departments that will have to issue reports on the matter. One of the purposes is to determine if the action that is carried out maintains the character of emergency in its entirety or if it is necessary to exclude any part for its bidding, something must be resolved by the technical referrals of the Administration.
The works are carried out on the slope of the sea margin of the tunnel that is located on the South highway as it passes through Güímar. The municipal investment planned to repair this space amounted to 342,865 euros. The contracted works consist of placing dynamic barriers, triple torsion meshes and shotcrete or shotcrete to reinforce the slope. This is to solve the problems that affect this wall, which presents an imminent risk of high danger from atmospheric phenomena, as well as a high risk of detachment. This is determined by the technical report commissioned by the municipal government and received on February 15 last. Both circumstances pose a threat to the integrity of the homes and the people of Las Bajas.
Is about a small town made up of a score of houses, caves and house-caves (something similar to Bajo la Cuesta, in Candelaria) of which only eight were permanently inhabited. These eight families, which number around 20 people (including minors), were rehoused by the Güimarero City Council, which assumes the cost of accommodation for the duration of the work contemplated to ensure the condition of the tunnel slope. That period was scheduled to be four months, that is, until this September.
This nucleus was created next to the sea and, as in many other points on the southern coast of the Island, it arose with the occupation of the caves that are in the place, later converted into houses with new annexed construction. The profile of the eight families that live in the town every day is that of employed workers, some of them are older and there are also several minors.
Likewise, it is one of the nuclei of the Güimarero coastline affected by a file for the recovery of possession of the space in the maritime-terrestrial public domain, promoted by the General Directorate of the Costa el Mar. Fact already communicated to the neighbors.
