tenerife ring road northern stretch funding

Tenerife’s ring road: €723m plan to finish northern stretch

Closing the Insular Ring Road along Tenerife’s northern side does not depend solely on the Tigaiga megatunnel – a seven-kilometre conduit designed to link La Guancha and Los Realejos. The Canary Islands Government is now seeking funding to complete the other stretch of the island’s road network, between Icod de los Vinos and La Guancha.

Funding hunt for the missing link

The Vice-Ministry for Infrastructure already has the project report in hand, but needs €123 million to launch the tendering process. That figure comes on top of the €600 million earmarked for the Tigaiga tunnel. The area’s vice-minister, Francis González, hopes to secure the funding “before signing the new road agreement with the Spanish State”.

A new motorway variant for the north

The proposal involves building a new variant of the northern motorway (TF-5), with a route stretching more than five kilometres and two carriageways – each with two lanes of 3.5 metres in width – where drivers will be able to travel at 80 kilometres per hour. The plans also include another twin-tube tunnel at Las Cucharas, designed to prevent the route from passing beneath homes, though it will be considerably smaller than the Tigaiga megatunnel. The construction period is estimated at 22 months.

The document describes the work as a “transitional” project, since “it does not by itself resolve the most problematic stretch at La Guancha and Los Realejos, which we plan to address with a larger tunnel, but it delivers an essential piece in moving towards completing the ring”, according to González.

Route and key connections

As for the route itself, it will begin just after the exit of the Buen Paso tunnel in Icod de los Vinos on the TF-5, and finish at the future La Guancha junction, in the area around the PIRS, where the Tigaiga megatunnel would begin. The project makes clear that the road will pass very close to urban centres such as San Juan de la Rambla, Santa Catalina, Las Crucitas, Las Cucharas and, in particular, Buen Paso, while also crossing rugged terrain and areas of significant environmental value. The maximum gradient will be 6% in certain sections, especially on the connections between this new road and the one linking Icod with El Tanque.

The Las Cucharas tunnel

The Las Cucharas tunnel is one of the plan’s standout features. With twin tubes, it will be far smaller than the Tigaiga megatunnel, measuring between 500 and 1,000 metres. According to the project, once past the municipality of La Guancha – heading towards Icod – it will emerge to the south of the Santo Domingo neighbourhood and continue southwest, finishing near Buen Paso, close to the Ciudad del Drago. The excavation will cut through the scoriaceous trachyte formations – volcanic geological structures of a salic nature – of Montaña Abejera. Each tube will be 10.5 metres wide.

The construction project also outlines the potential risks typical of volcanic rock masses, including crown collapse, the formation of chimneys, face stability issues, block falls and mixed faces.

Junctions to transform local access

In addition to the Las Cucharas tunnel, the other two principal elements of this northern motorway variant are the La Guancha and Buen Paso junctions, in Icod de los Vinos. The first will be located south of the Las Crucitas neighbourhood and west of Santa Catalina. Its design is a diamond interchange with an elevated central roundabout, enabling connections with the La Guancha road (TF-352) and, via this, with the TF-5.

The Buen Paso junction will be situated to the south of this settlement. Its main function is to connect with the next section of the Insular Ring Road and provide access to the Isla Baja area. Designed as a trumpet interchange, the roads allowing movements towards El Tanque, Isla Baja and Los Realejos will be organised with a two-way slip road that crosses the main carriageway via an underpass and connects with the TF-5. This junction will require splitting the current road into two independent carriageways: one on the existing alignment and another newly built towards El Tanque.

Racing against rising traffic

Time is an even more critical factor on this section of the island’s ring road than elsewhere. The project is designed to get ahead of an anticipated redistribution of traffic once the Insular Ring Road stretch towards El Tanque opens, and as traffic flows along the northern corridor increase. If the administrative procedures for the segment between Icod de los Vinos and La Guancha are not accelerated, it will not be finished in time to absorb this growth in traffic.

Infrastructure vice-minister Francis González (CC) recalled that the previous proposal, in the last legislative term, “sought to extend the Icod de los Vinos junction as far as Las Aguas, in San Juan de la Rambla, and come out into the open there. In this term, we have scaled that solution back to end at La Guancha.”

Environmental value and future demand

The project dwells on the environmental importance and value of the northern corridor, which encompasses the protected landscapes of Rambla de Castro, Campeches and Tigaiga. These environmental conditions sit alongside the current saturation of the TF-5. For this reason, it also analyses what traffic flows will look like on two horizons: 2035 and 2045. To estimate future demand, an annual growth rate of 4.5% has been applied. Under this hypothesis, traffic intensity on the road will reach 44,452 vehicles per day in 2035 and 71,265 in 2045.

A project of this scale inevitably involves a series of compulsory land purchases. In this case, the total value amounts to €3.8 million.

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