Tenerife’s €90 Million TF-1 Highway Tunnel Project Stalls Amid Legal Dispute

Plans to bury the TF-1 highway in southern Tenerife—a project designed to ease heavy traffic in the Las Américas and Fañabé areas—have stalled, highlighting the ongoing difficulties of managing public works in the Canary Islands. According to Diario de Avisos, the 90-million-euro project is now at a complete standstill. Regional President Fernando Clavijo has confirmed that no progress will be made during the current legislative term due to an ongoing legal dispute.

The conflict involves the Ministry of Public Works and the construction consortium (Acciona, AMC, and El Silbo). The government is moving to cancel the contract, citing failures to meet tender specifications, while the construction companies are seeking 27 million euros in compensation—a figure the government has countered with an offer of 11 million. The disagreement stems from technical requirements: the contractors argued that the original design needed updates to meet 2024 building codes and climate regulations, but the government’s legal team rejected these changes as a violation of the contract, leading to the seizure of part of the project’s guarantees.

This contract termination means the project is effectively back to square one. A new design must be drafted, and the entire bidding process will have to start over. This has caused significant alarm in the Adeje City Council. Manuel Luis Méndez, the Councilor for the Presidency, has criticized the handling of the project, warning that it could be a decade before the work is actually completed. For local officials, the project is essential; the TF-1 currently carries up to 100,000 vehicles a day—four times its intended capacity—leading to 50-minute delays on trips that should take only five.

While the Ministry claims that the 37 million euros allocated for the project between 2023 and 2026 remain reserved, the delay is part of a broader trend of stalled infrastructure on the island. Data shows that nearly 40% of the 350 million euros earmarked for road improvements under the state-regional agreement for 2023-2026 remains unspent.

First proposed in 2018 and put out to tender in May 2023, the project was intended to create a tunnel similar to the one on Avenida 3 de Mayo, separating local traffic from long-distance commuters. However, with no construction work having taken place since the contract was signed in August 2023, drivers on the TF-1 are left without a short-term solution for one of the most congested roads in Spain.