The president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, María Dolores Corujo, held a meeting this Tuesday with the Minister of Public Works, Transportation and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, Sebastián Franquis, to plan the works and actions that will be carried out on the island during this legislature.
The meeting, which was held at the headquarters of the first Island Corporation, was also attended by the general director of Road Infrastructure, José Luis Delgado, and the island councilor for Public Works and Planning, Jacobo Medina.
Sebastián Franquis announced that "the Ministry has already commissioned half of the road projects for Lanzarote." "Therefore, our objective is to begin executing 90% of the actions planned in the Road Agreement for this island during the next three years, works that total an amount of more than 160 million euros,” he said.
The president of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo, thanked the current Minister of Public Works for his commitment to Lanzarote and regretted that “in the last four years, with the previous Government of the Canary Islands, only 3,000 euros were invested in our island in terms of road infrastructure.” “We have had to start from scratch, since there were not even technical projects or files”, she stated.
An investment of 20.8 million in roads for 2021
The regional councilor stated that the Government of the Canary Islands has already budgeted an investment of 20.8 million euros for 2021 for improvements to the island's roads, to begin the execution of the first works next year.
Among these works, the remodeling of the connection between the LZ-2 roads stands out, which is the road that connects Arrecife with the town of Playa Honda and the LZ-3, which is the Ring Road of the capital, at the height of El Cable. The conditioning work on the LZ-1 road, which connects the towns of Guatiza and Órzola, is also included. Both actions will involve an approximate investment of 28 million euros during the years that the works last.
The Ministry also includes in next year's budgets an item to start the duplication of lanes on the LZ-40 from the César Manrique Airport to the town of Puerto del Carmen.
During Tuesday's meeting, it was also agreed to initiate the procedures to draft the project for the future extension of the Arrecife Ring Road (LZ-3) and its connection with the LZ-2 and the LZ-40. “This involves building a new alternative road, which will bypass the Argana neighborhood and reach the Airport. This work also includes an action to improve access to the Doctor José Molina Orosa General Hospital and thus solve traffic problems in one of the black spots on the island's roads,” explained the island councilor for Public Works, Jacobo Medina.
Subsidies and other works
Franquis also announced that, in the coming weeks, the regional Executive will transfer a total of 3.6 million euros in subsidies to the Cabildo of Lanzarote that will be used for the construction of the bike lane in Tahiche; the beautification and environmental restoration of the access to the César Manrique Airport; improvements to the San Bartolomé link with the LZ-20; improvements for noise containment in LZ-3 in the San Francisco Javier neighborhood, among others.
Likewise, other minor road maintenance and conservation works will begin next year, worth 1.6 million euros more, including the execution of walls on the slopes of the LZ-3, which were not executed in the Ring Road work and the execution of the Calderina roundabout on the LZ-2 in the municipality of Tías. “Without a doubt, all these works will place Lanzarote in the place it deserves and will also allow boosting the construction sector and employment in favor of the economic recovery of the island,” concluded Sebastián Franquis.
