With an unbridled population growth, with municipal registers such as those of Arona, Granadilla, Adeje and San Miguel with spurts well above 100% so far this century, the south of Tenerife faces its great challenge: updating its large infrastructures public after decades of delay. City councils, with more or less emphasis, businessmen and workers in the region have agreed for years that the southern part of the Island, whose tourist muscle is gaining more and more weight in the insular economic context, has not been reciprocated, in general terms, with the works and services demanded by its inhabitants and visitors.
The area in which it is most clearly visualized how the bull has caught the administrations responsible for planning is the motorway and roads. The queues on the TF-1, both in the morning and in the afternoon, as well as on its closest roads, highlight the serious mobility problems that thousands of users face on a daily basis, with the consequent loss of quality of life ( delays in journeys, work and family problems, and tension at the wheel, among others).
ERJOS TUNNEL
In the last four years, the Government of the Canary Islands has stepped up the accelerator of the pending works to recover part of the lost time, beginning with the Erjos double tunnel, the central work of the Insular Ring that will connect the north and south of the Island under the Teno massif and which is expected to open to traffic at the end of 2024, which will subtract 30,000 vehicles from the Northern highway. The two mouths of one of the tunnels were already found last month, and the drilling of the second gallery is expected to be completed in August.
Another ongoing project related to this mega-work is the second lane between Santiago del Teide and Erques, currently in the process of public and environmental information. In six months it should go out to tender.
In January of this year, the machines and operators should have started working on the section between Fañabé and Playa de Las Américas, but an open dispute between two companies (the one that won the contest and the one that came in second place) remains in waiting time for the work, which includes the construction of a false tunnel on the TF-1.
This month the section of the third lane between Playa de Las Américas and Oroteanda is scheduled to go out to tender, whose construction project, which includes a direct connection to the Hospital del Sur (in the southwest-Arona direction), has already been delivered and is in supervision phase. In a month it could be put out to tender, like the project for the stretch of highway that connects Las Chafiras and San Isidro.
The large road works planned in the southern region are completed with the third lane between Valle de Güímar and San Isidro, a very complicated project because it entails the demolition of all the highway bridges to build others adapted to the six lanes between the two cited points. The project has already been awarded, although not delivered, and its drafting period is 18 months.
OTHER PROJECTS
Tenerife South airport, one of the most profitable in Spain, is awaiting a major renovation of its terminal building and other facilities 45 years after its inauguration. AENA reported on the 10th that two companies are bidding for the design of the comprehensive remodeling of the facilities, included in the DORA III proposal and valued at more than 300 million euros.
More than five years after the Port of Granadilla was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the infrastructure continues to take steps towards its full operation, which is still some way off. The Port Authority announced last month the investment of 47 million euros in FEDER funds (85% of its total cost) for the execution of the closure works of the Ribera wharf of the industrial port and annexed landfills, as defined in the negotiation of the Business Plan 2024 of the Ports of Tenerife.
For its part, the port of Los Cristianos, a key piece in maritime communications with the western islands, has five million euros, included in the 2022 General State Budget, to solve the problems of road traffic in this southern nucleus.
Regarding the Hospital del Sur, in January of this year, the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo signed the second addendum to the collaboration agreement to set up a new hospital building in El Mojón, with an investment of 40 million. 47,000 square meters will be won for services such as the ICU, dialysis, surgical area, pharmacy and day hospital.
MOTOR CIRCUIT
One of the projects that has generated the most political and social debate has been the Circuito del Motor, in Atogo (Granadilla). After several decades of tug of war, including the unsuccessful laying of the first stone seven years ago, the Cabildo approved on March 28 the file for the contracting of the works. Its construction will have a tender budget of 56 million euros and an execution period of 40 months.
In terms of educational infrastructures, the next course will open its doors, more than three years late, the IES Parque La Reina, which will replace the Guaza barracones, and it is also expected that another project will be completed, which is also considerably behind schedule. : the Integrated Vocational Training Center of Adeje.
Among the pending issues are the Los Cristianos Interchange, whose tender is expected in the legislature that has just begun, and the fire station in the southwest of the Island, a long-demanded project considered essential to improve security in this area.
