Part of TF445 Punta de Teno road collapses a year after reopening

[Janet]

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It was only reopened a year ago, but last evening an 8m long and 4m wide section of the TF445 carriageway collapsed leaving 174 people stranded on the Punta de Teno. Emergency services and Cabildo road teams were quickly on site, and the Cabildo activated its emergency plan (Plan Territorial Insular de Emergencias de Tenerife – PEIN) to allow the various services to be coordinated to resolve the situation.

President Alonso, together with Cabildo vicepresidente Aurelio Abreu, and Environment and Security councillor José Antonio Valbuena all remained at the scene until the early hours overseeing the evacuations. Weather conditions were assessed as unsuitable for their evacuation by sea, and so people were transferred by helicopter - the rescues ended around 1.30am.

Involved in the incident were two Bomberos units, three army helicopters, a Canarian Government search and rescue helicopter, three boats from Santiago del Teide, and teams from the Guardia Civil, Policía Local and Protección Civil, as well as Cruz Roja from Puerto de Garachico and Los Gigantes.

Thankfully no-one needed medical assistance though there is video footage on Facebook of a lucky driver passing over the tarmac sagging over the void - the last man over! The road will remain closed until further notice. In the meantime, urgent investigations and repair works will be carried out, and provisions made to recover the vehicles left behind in the evacuations.



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[Malteser Monkey]

I feel sick just looking at that - those roads !  I've forgotten what they are like

[Janet]

I remember many years ago now that the road through Los Menores collapsed ... traffic was rerouted for around 18 months, I seem to remember, down onto the coast road. Since we were in Callao Salvaje at the time, that meant our normal road out became congested beyond belief. The bit that collapsed was a kind of bridge over a barranco where the subsoil had just collapsed or been washed away leaving just the tarmac. The last one over said he'd felt as though he was driving on a trampoline ...

[Anne 2009]

Good to hear no one was injured. Things could have been a lot worse looking at that.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

Having been there several times, I think I'll remember the good times and not venture back when they reopen the road.  I just don't trust it.

[Janet]

There have been a few updates on my website HERE, but the main one is this, from an hour ago:

The Cabildo says that 67 stranded vehicles have been recovered throughout today through a single lane in an operation coordinatead by the Cabildo, Protección Civil and Buenavista Ayuntamiento, and overseen by the fire service after initial works were undertaken yesterday to shore up the bank. By 4pm, all but three vehicles had been recovered, those three still waiting owners to claim them.

In terms of ongoing works, Tenerife president Carlos Alonso said today that he thought that it will be the end of August or so before the road could be reopened, with works estimated to cost at least €500,000. The Cabildo will need to analyse how best to coordinate structural, tarmacking and drainage works, including securing the banking and stabilizing the 50-year-old wall which collapsed, he said.

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[Perikles]

I don't suppose anybody is legally responsible for the structural safety of the road, oh no. 

[Nova]

No information on how the cars were retrieved?  I'm imagining a couple of planks laid across the gap 

[Janet]

well, it's just as in the picture really. They shored up the single inner lane, put the red and white barrier up, and the traffic drove out over the one lane.

edit: I thought I must be going mad ... I was sure I'd explained! It was in yesterday's update over on my site:

reinforce the existing structure to guarantee the banking underneath ...  clearing away rubble. Thereafter, a reinforced fibre concrete will be used to restore the carriageway. At that point the trapped vehicles would have a corridor through which to be released.

[Nova]

Sorry, I must have missed that bit!  So basically a fibre-reinforced concrete plank then    I couldn't make out the picture, it looked like the road just stopped at the red and white barriers, but I get it now!  The road actually bends to stage-left there so that the cars are passing along a bit of the road that we can't see!!