Erques Bridge Marks Decade on Tenerife Ring Road

It's hard to believe, but ten years have already passed since cars first drove over the Erques bridge. This impressive bridge, with its two parallel arches, is part of the island's ring road. It spans the ravine between the towns of Adeje and Guía de Isora.

The bridge is 120 meters long and took almost a year to build. It's now a well-known landmark on Tenerife's southwest road.

After a final technical test – where a dozen trucks were loaded onto each lane to check how much it twisted – the bridge opened on December 18, 2015. This was also when a 6.5-kilometer section of road, linking the bridge to the Armeñime roundabout, opened to traffic.

This huge bridge over the Erques ravine weighs 2,500 tons. It was built using a special type of concrete that expands as it sets. This expansion helps the steel and concrete in the arch stick together more strongly.

To put the two 120-ton arches in place, workers used one of the few cranes in Spain at the time that could lift 600 tons.

During the construction of this part of the island ring road, excavators found ancient rock carvings (petroglyphs) in the Los Menores area of Adeje. Earlier, in 2007, several skeletons were also discovered in caves in Santiago del Teide. Both the human remains and the carvings were given to the Historical Artistic and Archaeological Heritage department of the Tenerife Island Council.

When this 6.5-kilometer section of dual-carriageway opened, it completed 21 kilometers of new road across three towns: Adeje, Guía de Isora, and Santiago del Teide. The other 14.5 kilometers, which opened in April 2015, are currently a fast road with two lanes heading northwest and one lane towards Adeje. This single lane will eventually be expanded to two, as planned for the island's roads.

Right now, efforts are focused on finishing the road section between El Tanque and Santiago del Teide. This includes the Erjos twin tunnel, which is 5.1 kilometers long – making it the longest in the Canary Islands. It runs beneath the Teno massif and will become the main link between northern and southern Tenerife.

This project is the most expensive part of the road agreement, originally costing 241 million euros. An extra 22.2 million euros was added for price changes, and another 21.5 million euros was approved last week by the Canary Islands Government. This latest increase is to include "environmental improvements, energy efficiency, and safety measures in the Erjos tunnel."

If all goes to plan, this section of road should open in March 2027. This means 88 months of work and a total delay of three years and four months.