Vice President Augusto Hidalgo submits to the plenary the approval of the multi-year expenditure to be able to tender and begin the works in this summit area of San Bartolomé de Tirajana before the end of 2025
The Plenary Session of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria has approved today, at the proposal of the Ministry of Public Works and Infrastructure, Architecture and Housing, headed by Vice President Augusto Hidalgo, the multi-year expenditure of 1.267.543 euros to carry out the works necessary to stabilize the slopes of a section of the GC-654 road, between the Taidía and Risco Blanco neighborhoods, in the summit area of San Bartolomé de Tirajana. With this work, which is expected to be put out to tender and its execution to begin this year 2025, the aim is to avoid the landslides of rocks and earth on the road that usually occur every time it rains heavily.
The GC-654 road, from Sequero to Risco Blanco via Taidía, is a road in the Gran Canaria Island Council Road Network, considered a local road within the municipal district of San Bartolomé de Tirajana. It is a road that provides an essential service as it is an internal route that connects the municipal districts of Santa Lucía and San Bartolomé de Tirajana. Its route includes several neighbourhoods such as Risco Blanco, La Culata, Agualatente and El Sequero, where there are housing complexes and different accesses to agricultural farms in operation.
Most of the GC-654 route is characterised by a winding, mid-slope layout, with cleared slopes and very steep, high hillsides. In recent years, landslides have occurred at different kilometre points, especially when adverse weather conditions occur. These landslides have affected traffic, as the road was blocked for several days or hours, as occurred in January 2021, with the harm this causes to users, visitors to the island, school transport or rubbish collection services, among others.
The area with the greatest problems is on the right side of the section between kilometer points 1,940 and 2,550, where material falls onto the roadway very frequently, especially in the winter months when adverse weather conditions such as wind and rain occur. There are two retaining walls on the slope here, with a welded mesh at the top to prevent material from falling onto the roadway. The state of this stabilization system is currently very poor.
The actions to be carried out on these slopes of the GC-654 consist of manually clearing the rock mass by clearing vegetation and removing loose materials; spraying shotcrete to protect the unstable elements of the entire slope surface from erosion; placing a triple-twisted galvanized wire mesh; and placing an additional reinforcement anchor for the mesh. In addition, where necessary, excavation and cleaning of the walls' landfills will be carried out; the metal mesh will be dismantled and a four-meter-high dynamic barrier will be installed on the wall.
