The Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, Sebastián Franquis, attended yesterday the partial opening to circulation of the new Oroteanda junction, in the municipality of San Miguel de Abona and which is part of the project called Third Lane of TF-1; Chafiras-Oroteanda link, a commissioning that is carried out despite the complete work not being completed to facilitate the connections of the southern highway with the commercial and industrial area of Las Chafiras and avoid the retentions that usually occur in this section of the TF-1. In addition, with the branches that were put into service yesterday, safety on the roads is gained and travel times in the area are considerably shortened.
“We are not inaugurating, far from it, because the work is not finished, we are putting into service several branches of this new Oroteanda link for public interest,” explained Franquis. “With this we are going to achieve, first, reduce travel times in this area, which are essential. The time savings on this new link can be between 35% and 45%. And second, for a clear element of traffic safety. These are the two key elements to put these branches into operation, fundamental to end one of the traffic conflict points that the island of Tenerife has, in this case, in the South ”, added the counselor.
The counselor Franquis, together with the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín; the vice president and insular councilor of Public Works, Enrique Arriaga; The mayor of San Miguel de Abona, Arturo González, and the general director of Road Infrastructure, José Luis Delgado, also supervised the status of the works, which have enabled the commissioning of two of the four branches of the Oroteanda link, as well as one a new roundabout on the land side of the TF-1, and a connection through an underground gallery under the highway that connects this roundabout with the one already in use on the sea side.
This opening will allow drivers coming from Adeje, Guía de Isora, Las Américas or Los Cristianos, and whose destination is the area of Las Galletas, Guargacho and Costa del Silencio, to have an alternative itinerary through the new branch that leaves from the highway to join the roundabout on the sea side, which has been in use for a year. The other branch that came into service yesterday is the one that connects the new roundabout -side the land- with the highway in the direction of Adeje and that will facilitate the direct exit to the highway for those coming from Las Chafiras or Aldea Blanca. This new link, although partially open, will unload traffic volume to the current Las Chafiras link.
Councilor Franquis explained that, in this way, and in the absence of two more branches that will open in January, the new roundabout in Oroteanda that includes the project will be practically completed in just over a month. From then on, work will focus on the remodeling of the current Las Chafiras link.
The current budget for this work is 23 million euros and the forecast is that by December 31, 2021, 10.5 million will have been executed, which represents 45% of the total.
