The huge cargo ship flying the Liberian flag that collided with the first pillar of the Zárate Brazo Largo bridge on Sunday remains stuck and blocks the passage of different vessels.
However, the authorities planned different alternative routes and
there is already a date to be able to remove it
.
Emiliano Riberas, director of the Emergency Coordination of the Municipality of Zárate, assured
Clarín
that the navigations that used to circulate on the Paraná River in Las Palmas had to
divert their route along the Paraná - Guazú River
.
“The Paraná River in Las Palmas at kilometer 106 is totally restricted.
The alternative route is perpendicular to the usual route,” he explained.
However, the Zárate Naval Prefecture indicated that on the alternate route, which passes through the Martín García canal,
not all ships can pass
.
“What happens is that navigations are subject to the tide.
There is a regulatory issue around this point, which means that many boats cannot pass through there and are forced to navigate the Paraná River in Las Palmas.
For now we are providing information to all ships about when they can navigate through the Martín García channel and when they cannot," they stated.
While some larger vessels await the opening of the only route through which they can navigate, Riberas confirmed to
Clarín
the date on which they stipulate to be able to remove the vessel that collided with the bridge.
“The work continues throughout this week and
we evaluate removing it between Monday and Thursday of next week
.
Also, it is stipulated that for this to be carried out,
momentary cuts will be made to the route of Route 12
and also in the Costanera de Zárate area,” he noted.
“Work is being done by the National Viability Engineering and the Argentine Naval Prefecture to evaluate an emergency rescue plan for the ship.
Engineers are carrying out evaluation work because to remove the ship from the place where it is, all the variables must be studied so that when it is removed,
it does not take away a part of the bridge structure or damage it even more
.
That is why the studies are very detailed on how the extraction will be done,” he added.
As for costs, the shipping company's insurance will be responsible for paying for the total repair of what broke the ship.
The amount and estimate of the work is still unknown and will be known when the authorities remove the ship and can observe the extent of the accident.
The crash of the Liberian cargo ship
The collision occurred on Sunday afternoon when a large vessel, with a Liberian crew, came without cargo from the Brazilian area to go to the Santa Fe port of San Lorenzo to load grain.
Meters before reaching the structure, the ship lost control and “governance” of the rudder and grazed one of the bridge pillars.
The ship crashed on Sunday afternoon and is still embedded in the bridge.
The cargo ship became embedded about
10 meters inside the pile
, which caused a minimal entry of water, but without danger of sinking due to the fact that the ship came without cargo.
This caused “significant damage” to about 35 underground piles, however, the circulation of cars and light cargo trucks remains open, according to
sources from the Municipality of Zárate told
Clarín .
But
the transit of railways and large trucks remains paralyzed
, as well as the transit of all types of vessels through the Paraná de las Palmas Waterway.
Meanwhile, vehicular traffic circulates normally on the Zárate Brazo Largo bridge, although the maximum speed is restricted to 60 kilometers per hour.
Video
Loop.
I followed all the coverage on clarin.com.
An official statement from the Naval Prefecture reported that "a pilot, at the time the ship was sailing upstream, suffered rudder problems, for reasons that are still unknown, and lost control, colliding with a protection pillar. of the bridge on the right bank of the complex, at kilometer 106 of the Paraná de las Palmas River".
The Federal Court of Campana, headed by Adrián González Charvay, intervenes in the incident.
The economic losses due to the collision of a ship against the Zárate bridge
On the other hand, the blockade on the Zárate - Brazo Largo bridge prevents the transit of deep-draft vessels that can only navigate those roads.
This has economic consequences for both the vessels and the entire production chain that uses the Waterway.
According to experts consulted by
Clarín
,
for every day it is stopped, a large ship loses close to $30,000.
An average of 12 ships and 54 barges pass through the Waterway per day.
To these numbers we must add the unproductive cost per dock, which is not used because there is no arrival or departure of ships and the increase in costs in industries due to production stoppage caused by raw materials that do not reach their destination. and products that do not go out to be exported.
Video
The boat shows damage in the area that hit the infrastructure pillar, as observed by a Prefecture patrol.
Regarding this, the president of the Chamber of Private Ports, Luis Zubizarreta, assured that
the alternative route entails more costs than the traditional route.
“Our customers are waiting for loads and are not receiving them in a timely manner because the ships are delayed due to this situation.
Although it was an accident, we must have a tighter protocol for these types of situations,” he said and stressed that
this extra cost ends up being paid by the cargo and harms the income of foreign currency.
“We sell to a foreign client, he puts the boat, sends it and his boat is left waiting for this force majeure situation.
But, ultimately, he costs someone money.
So this discredits your origin and the Argentine ports,” he added.
“80% of the country's exports pass through that route
,” he noted.
The head of the chamber assured that ships with containers “have the most difficult part” because they must go to many ports and the obstruction delays their itinerary.
Although an alternative route was enabled, “ships must go down with less cargo than they can transport and that generates losses.”
MG