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Incredible New £30m Motorway To End Traffic Chaos On Popular Spanish Island

incredible-new-30m-motorway-to-end-traffic-chaos-on-popular-spanish-island

Incredible New £30m Motorway To End Traffic Chaos On Popular Spanish Island

A £30 million investment has been approved to rehabilitate a heavily trafficked stretch of the TF-1. (Image: Getty)

The Tenerife Cabildo has approved a huge investment to renovate a 15.5-mile stretch of the TF-1 highway that runs through the municipalities of Arico, Fasnia, and Guimar.

The section is heavily congested with traffic and regularly causes chaos, with over 50,000 vehicles a day passing through, according to Tenerife’s Island President, Rosa Davila. 

Although the initial approved budget is €30 million (£25.3 million), according to contract documents the project’s total rises to €35.9 million (£30 million).

The works will be divided into four phases and awarded to four different companies. The first phase has a budget of €2.7 million (nearly £2.3 million), according to the Canarian Weekly. 

The works include resurfacing, installing noise barriers alongside the road, repainting, and adding concrete barriers and guardrails on bridges. 

In 2009, a section from Santa Cruz to Guimar was upgraded to have a third lane. (Image: Getty)

The four companies have been given timelines ranging from six to nine months to complete their phase, depending on the volume of work, with the intended commencement date to be at the end of this year or early January 2025. 

The TF-1, or the Autopista del Sur, was first constructed in the 1970s, with the roadway being doubled in the late 1980s. In 2009, a section from Santa Cruz to Guimar was upgraded to have a third lane. It is the longest motorway in the archipelago.

A previously announced expansion project, in which the Spanish government gave the Canary Islands a budget of £1.3 billion, is to see the construction of a third lane in both directions to increase the capacity of the island’s traffic and improve safety. 

With 6.5 million tourists flooding the island annually, the Tenerife’s infrastructure is stretched to its limits. However, many residents appear to be against the motorway’s expansion. 

Brian Harrison, spokesman of the Spanish protest group Salvar La Tejita, previously told Express.co.uk that the three motorways on the island are deadlocked on a daily basis due to the unsustainable increase of rental vehicles circulating and that the addition of a third lane would not solve the problems the island is facing. 

The rehabilitation work will include resurfacing and installing noise barriers alongside the road. (Image: Getty)

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He said: “The problem is that every single year there are more cars on the road. So by the time the work is finished, it will be obsolete because there will be even more cars in need of a fourth and a fifth lane.”

Mr Harrison believes what is needed is a “substantial increase” of and improvement to the public transport system which he described as “absolutely abysmal”.

In addition to the new highway project, the Island Council of Tenerife has approved plans for other investments, including an over £224,900 project to improve the Guimar Industrial Park, focusing on roads, pavements and green areas, with a four-month completion deadline.

A further £541,500 has been allocated for the renovation of storage and processing facilities in Benijos, La Orotava. 

Other funds have been set aside for various social, cultural, and educational investments as part of a broader initiative to improve the quality of life for families across Tenerife.

These include an over £3.3 million plan to increase the capacity of residential care facilities for minors with £3.2 million earmarked for language scholarships, benefitting 340 high school students to study abroad in countries including Canada, Ireland, the US and France between 2025 and 2027. 

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