The Canary Islands have been given a budget of 1.6 billion euros by the Spanish Government to improve roads, and the construction of a third lane in both directions of the TF-1 motorway between Santa Cruz and Playa de Las Américas took a step closer yesterday (Tuesday) as the Ministry of Public Works put the drafting of a project for a third lane between Güímar and Granadilla de Abona out to tender.
This project has a budget of almost two million euros and has to take into account 13 junctions, 12 bridges, 11 underpasses, and the Güímar tunnel, and is alongside the ones already being studied for the stretch between San Isidro and Playa de Las Americas and the cut-and-cover tunnel on the motorway between from Las Americas to Fañabé, and the ongoing works in Las Chafiras.
The construction of two more lanes along this 34 kilometre section of the TF-1 will not only allow an increase in the capacity of the island's traffic but will also significantly improve safety for the vehicles that pass through it.
More than 50,000 vehicles a day use the section between Güímar and San Isidro, mostly heading South between 7:30am and 9:00am, and between 3:30pm and 5:00pm in the direction of Santa Cruz.
In addition, this high-capacity road connects the largest industrial estate in Tenerife, the one in Güímar, with the new port of Granadilla in which there are high expectations of economic development in the medium and long term, which will considerably increase the volume of traffic on the TF-1.
The section of the motorway between Güímar and San Isidro was built in the 1970s and the roadway was doubled from a single lane at the end of the 1980s. In 2009, work on the third lane from Santa Cruz to Güímar was completed. Now, with the tender for the drafting of the project, the Tenerife Insular Management Plan is fulfilled, which includes among its objectives the "progressive adaptation" of the infrastructures to the needs of the Island.
Projects in process:
This is the third tender that the Ministry has put out to tender in the south of Tenerife. The first was in May for the tunnel between Playa de Las Américas and Fañabé which will include the creation of a boulevard on top of it with garden areas, cycle lanes and four roundabouts that will allow the connection between the tourist areas.
At the end of May the drafting of the project for the layout and construction of the third lane of the TF-1 between San Isidro and Playa de Las Américas was put out to tender, a nine-kilometre stretch through which more than 90,000 vehicles circulate every day and which presents problems of saturation, with frequent traffic jams in Guaza and Los Cristianos.
Likewise, the works continue on the Las Chafiras-Oroteanda junction to ease traffic on the TF-1 and around San Miguel and the Golf areas.
