Taking the high road is an expensive business
The remote and mountainous north west corner of Tenerife has received a major boost with news that work has started on what is likely to be the most expensive stretch of road anywhere in the Canary Islands.
The new road, between Adeje in the south west and Santiago del Teide in the north west, is one of the few remaining sections required to complete the island’s equivalent of London’s M25 orbital motorway.
The civil engineering challenges to be faced in the project are huge, with tunnels, viaducts, underpasses and overpasses all figuring in the construction work, which it is estimated will cost a staggering €168,000,000.
Critics of the scheme, led by the environmental lobby, say it will cost much more than that.
The building of another section of the road, between San Juan de la Rambla and Icod de los Vinos, is already well under way and another segment, to connect Santiago del Teide and El Tanque, is due to go out to tender in the near future.
That leaves just one remaining stretch – between Los Realejos, where the northern section of the ring road currently ends, and San Juan de la Rambla – still on the drawing board.
Much of the motorway already in place has been built close to the coast where gradients are much less of a problem than on the Adeje-Santiago del Teide section, which will cross a total of 19 ravines.