The Tenerife Cabildo has authorized an enormous funding to renovate a 15.5-mile stretch of the TF-1 freeway that runs via the municipalities of Arico, Fasnia, and Guimar.
The part is closely congested with visitors and commonly causes chaos, with over 50,000 automobiles a day passing via, in response to Tenerife’s Island President, Rosa Davila.
Though the preliminary authorized funds is €30 million (£25.3 million), in response to contract paperwork the undertaking’s complete rises to €35.9 million (£30 million).
The works shall be divided into 4 phases and awarded to 4 totally different firms. The primary part has a funds of €2.7 million (almost £2.3 million), in response to the Canarian Weekly.
The works embrace resurfacing, putting in noise obstacles alongside the street, repainting, and including concrete obstacles and guardrails on bridges.
The 4 firms have been given timelines starting from six to 9 months to finish their part, relying on the amount of labor, with the meant graduation date to be on the finish of this yr or early January 2025.
The TF-1, or the Autopista del Sur, was first constructed within the Seventies, with the roadway being doubled within the late Nineteen Eighties. In 2009, a bit from Santa Cruz to Guimar was upgraded to have a 3rd lane. It’s the longest motorway within the archipelago.
A beforehand introduced growth undertaking, during which the Spanish authorities gave the Canary Islands a funds of £1.3 billion, is to see the development of a 3rd lane in each instructions to extend the capability of the island’s visitors and enhance security.
With 6.5 million vacationers flooding the island yearly, the Tenerife’s infrastructure is stretched to its limits. Nevertheless, many residents seem like in opposition to the motorway’s growth.
Brian Harrison, spokesman of the Spanish protest group Salvar La Tejita, beforehand instructed Categorical.co.uk that the three motorways on the island are deadlocked every day as a result of unsustainable enhance of rental automobiles circulating and that the addition of a 3rd lane wouldn’t resolve the issues the island is going through.
He stated: “The issue is that each single yr there are extra automobiles on the street. So by the point the work is completed, it is going to be out of date as a result of there shall be much more automobiles in want of a fourth and a fifth lane.”
Mr Harrison believes what is required is a “substantial enhance” of and enchancment to the general public transport system which he described as “completely abysmal”.
Along with the brand new freeway undertaking, the Island Council of Tenerife has authorized plans for different investments, together with an over £224,900 undertaking to enhance the Guimar Industrial Park, specializing in roads, pavements and inexperienced areas, with a four-month completion deadline.
An extra £541,500 has been allotted for the renovation of storage and processing amenities in Benijos, La Orotava.
Different funds have been put aside for numerous social, cultural, and academic investments as a part of a broader initiative to enhance the standard of life for households throughout Tenerife.
These embrace an over £3.3 million plan to extend the capability of residential care amenities for minors with £3.2 million earmarked for language scholarships, benefitting 340 highschool college students to check overseas in international locations together with Canada, Eire, the US and France between 2025 and 2027.