La Rambla Residents Outraged as Highway Access Plan Stalls

Residents of La Rambla are angry and feel helpless after a meeting with officials about the dangerous access to their neighborhood from the TF-5 highway.

The meeting included Dámaso Arteaga, Minister of Roads for Tenerife, Francis González, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure for the Canary Islands Government, and Mayor Juan Ramos. However, according to Adela Abreu, spokesperson for the "Todos con la Rambla" neighborhood group, the officials simply presented the same old project, just shifted twelve meters closer to the sea. They claimed the previous plan was rejected because it impacted the protected Barranco de Ruiz area.

Locals see this explanation as a "joke" and believe the timing – just days before a planned protest – is no accident. The protest, scheduled for tomorrow at noon at the entrance to La Rambla, will demand safer access to and from the TF-5 highway.

Abreu stated, "So many months have gone by with no information. We've spoken to the mayor repeatedly, and now, just before the protest, they tell us this. It feels like they're just trying to delay us and that nothing will actually be done."

She added, "They presented this project last year and said €75,000 had been allocated in the Cabildo's budget. We thought progress was being made, but nothing has happened, and we're back to square one. We don't know where that money went, and even worse, on Thursday they couldn't guarantee the project would even go ahead."

In the meantime, the Platform has suggested temporary safety measures for the intersection, where a young woman was recently hit while walking to the bus stop. They've requested yellow construction paint for better visibility, reduced speed limits with signs, and a traffic island to allow residents to turn towards Santa Cruz without a lengthy detour. However, the island's technician rejected these suggestions, claiming they were unsafe.