Yesterday, the Governing Council authorized, at the proposal of the Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing, Sebastián Franquis, the expenditure of 3,762,771 euros for the revision of the prices of the works carried out, between November 2021 and April 2022, in the Tenerife Insular Ring Closure project. El Tanque-Santiago section Mount Teide. This extra cost is due to the adaptation of payments to the current prices of construction materials, whose value has increased in the last year and a half due to the rise in inflation around the world in recent months due to the crisis. of fuel prices and the war in Ukraine. This work is the largest of all those currently executed by the Canary Islands Governmentsince it was awarded in 2019 for more than 252 million euros.
The works of the Santiago del Teide-El Tanque section of the Insular Ring closure were awarded to the temporary union of companies (UTE) formed by FCC, El Silbo and Syocsa-Inarsa, for more than 252 million euros, which now increases to almost the 256.
The project consists of building the section that will connect the Autopista del Norte (TF-5), in the municipality of El Tanque, with the Autopista del Sur (TF-1), in Santiago del Teide, giving continuity to the actions between Adeje and Santiago del Teide, to the South, and from Icod de Los Vinos to El Tanque, to the East. This new section will be 11.3 kilometers long and will link the runners North and South with a safer route with greater capacity than the current TF-82. Drivers will save more than 45 minutes compared to the road to use.
The most important performance of the work is the Erjos Tunnel. Made up of two parallel tubes, each 5.1 kilometers long, it will run under the Teno Massif and will be the longest tunnel in the Archipelago and one of the longest road tunnels in Spain.
A usual measure
The revision of prices is usual in the follow-up that the Ministry of Public Works applies to the execution of works in progress. It seeks to adapt the prices that the Public Administration pays to the companies that carry out their projects to the real prices of construction materials and to the possible modifications of the projects. The administrations are also forced to face the economic consequences generated by the inflation caused by the war in Ukraine and the price of fuel, in this case in construction materials.
The Ministry reported that in the current legislature it was possible to speed up these payments and prevent construction companies from filing lawsuits for late payment interest with million-dollar claims, as usually happened in previous legislatures. As an example, he recalled that the Governing Council authorized almost a year ago a payment of 7.1 million to meet the claims of two joint ventures that requested a price update in 2014 and were not attended to. One of them, which executed the southern section of the Insular Ring, went to court due to the delay of those responsible for the Ministry in 2014 to deal with their claims for price revision and the payment of works certifications. A sentence proved them right in 2019 and condemned the Government to pay a millionaire claim for accrued interest due to the delay in the payment of price reviews, especially from 2010 to 2014.
In addition, the Ministry recalled that these price reviews have been implemented for years in the management of road works, for which it also complies with the precepts of Royal Decree Law 3/2022, which establishes that public administrations throughout Spain must adapt the prices paid to construction companies to the current reality of the construction materials market.
