Some started 9 years ago and are still unfinished. In some cases they generate road insecurity and disturbances to motorists.
Pedro Gianello
02/17/2020 - 8:00
- Clarín.com
- Zones
The inhabitants of Norberto de la Riestra, a town of 4,500 inhabitants of Buenos Aires, unknowingly share a characteristic with the more than 17,000 residents of Trancas, in Tucumán. Distant at 1,300 kilometers, both locations are part of a long list of more than 70 works by National Road in 17 provinces that were left unfinished and today are stopped, although in some cases enabled for transit.
Bridges, widening of routes, resurfacing, highways, roundabouts, access to localities, water defenses or minor works are part of the menu of works that in some cases have a start date of work in 2010 or 2011 and that for the most part were cut in 2018. In a situation that seems to escape the binary logic of “the crack”, some were initiated and arrested during the presidencies of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, others initiated in the management of the former president and stopped in the government of Mauricio Macri , and another group started and stopped in the last four years. The stop is in provinces governed by Peronism and those of radical administrations.
The arguments are varied. They oscillate between suspicions of corruption, lack of funds, crossings between provincial and national roads, price redeterminations, changes in contracts, “defective” projects and the consequent crossings between public officials.
The map with the works
paralyzed in the country
National Road has works stopped in 18 provinces. Some began and stopped in the management of Cristina Kirchner; others began in the government of the former president and stopped in the presidency of Mauricio Macri and others started and stopped in the last four years. These are bridges, widening of routes, resurfacing, highways, roundabouts, access to localities, water defenses or minor works with different progress of work and outstanding balances to finish them. You can enter each route and see the type of work, the degree of progress, when it started and when it stopped.
Touch the routes and markers
To explore the map.
Source: National Roads Infographic: Hugo Vasiliev | Clarion
Beyond the political party issue, the paralyzed works carry consequences that range from road insecurity to delays and extra money spent on fuel to surround half-way roads that make them impassable. And in addition, they estimate that there may be a high cost in retaking these works, which in themselves are waiting for the negotiation with the bondholders and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to know with what resources the National Road Administration will have ( DNV).
An example of the problem that the paralyzed work entails is usually the axis of the electoral campaigns in the Party of May 25, in the Province of Buenos Aires. At the head of the district nestled on the side of Provincial Route 51, between Bragado and Saladillo, heavy rains are synonymous with a waste of time, which crushes on a promise unfulfilled many years ago. A decade ago they were excited about the beginning of the 19.28-kilometer paving of Provincial Route 40, which promised to execute the National State and figured in the National Budget.
Deviations in the pavement work on the Jacobacci Clemente Onelli section of National Route 23 in Río Negro. (Daily courtesy of Río Negro)
This work sought to avoid curved railroad crossings along the track, between Martín Berraondo and the intersection with Route 51. “As producers we feel this a lot because we lost the railway line for many years, which would have been very productive, and we are still waiting for the route ”, claims David Segismondi, president of the Rural Society of May 25, who even rented land to the operator of the Transitional Business Union (UTE) that was built in 2014.“ To the company in charge of the work had a pending balance. They put a bridge and something else but it was there and it is deteriorating. When it rains a lot, the route that is halfway done cannot be used and we have to go around 100 kilometers around Roque Pérez or Chivilcoy to go until May 25 ”, remarks Segismondi.
According to the official records of the DNV, the work has a start date February 2011 and in June 2018 has presented the latest certificate of progress. The work remained with a progress of 65% and a current balance to finish it of $ 96,106,025.81.
Braked works of National Roads throughout the country. The majority are in Buenos Aires although there are also some historical ones such as routes 22 and 23 in Río Negro. (Daily courtesy of Río Negro)
Motorists use it the same, although it was not concluded. “The work was announced and started by Néstor Kirchner and stopped when it was already tendered to continue at the end of 2015. Former governor María Eugenia Vidal announced that it was going to be finished because she had national funding, but they just finished the bridge over El Gato stream ”, highlights Hernán Ralinqueo, mayor of May 25, of Peronist affiliation.
As this work includes the list of National Roads another 15 routes in the Province of Buenos Aires, nine in Santa Fe; six in Mendoza; six in Entre Ríos; five in Córdoba; five in Río Negro; four in Chubut; and four in La Rioja, among other provinces.
Works Statistics
Source: Clarín calculations based on National Road data Infographic: Clarín
The province led by the Peronist Juan Schiaretti, who maintained a good relationship with the Macri government, has two works halted in March and July 2015, and two others in May and April 2018. In the government they confirm the Viality data, except for a difference of 4% in the rehabilitation of Routes 8 and 36. They also confirm the stop on the bridge between Jesús María and Sinsacate. Work began in July 2017 and was arrested with only 13% in December of that year.
In Chubut, both the work on National Route 3 between Puerto Madryn and Trelew and on the Chenque hill, in Comodoro Rivadavia, are stopped.
The productive corridors of Buenos Aires In that group are the historical national routes 7, 8 and also the 3. All had advances in the last four years, partial inaugurations, although there are sections that appear unfinished.
In the case of Route 7, an eight-kilometer variant between Luján and San Andrés de Giles was inaugurated in June last year during the election campaign and is enabled for transit. It coincides with the last certificate of the construction company, but in Vialidad it is 97%, still with a debt of $ 103 million.
This highway was promised in 2007, but only in March 2016, 32 kilometers from Luján to San Andrés de Giles were enabled and last year another new 40 kilometers of highway, which avoids the dangerous crossing with Route 41. Today works continue between Carmen de Areco and Junín.
But in addition to the construction of the highway on Route 7, National Route 8 also had a strong boost in the management of Macri, as even the Buenos Aires Peronist leaders of the interior themselves recognize. It already has two lanes per side from Buenos Aires almost to San Antonio de Areco, and advances in other sections to Pergamino. Although the 15-kilometer stretch between Todd and Fontezuela, is only 3% complete in the period June 2015-December 2017.
Just as that sector barely advanced, there are 14 other routes that have more than 85% progress, many already enabled for transit. As the repair of the San Miguel del Monte-Las Flores section of National Route 3 (88%); the rehabilitation of the road in three sections of Route 8 between Buenos Aires and Santa Fe that total 110 kilometers; or 28 kilometers of water defenses of the highway already built on Route 40 between Mendoza and Tunuyán (87%, with a debt of $ 70 million), a work that began in June 2010 and stopped in September 2018.
The new authorities of the DNV say that as of December 31 of last year the debt was $ 5.6 billion; plus $ 1.6 billion unearned. And they affirm that there are another $ 11,400 million not registered, that conform with $ 8,500 million with invoices presented and another $ 2,900 without invoices.
Great Buenos Aires
In the distribution of approved and braked works only one appears in Greater Buenos Aires. This is the "Arroyo Morón Highway", projected at just over $ 10 million, with the start of work in July 2018 and a last certificate presented in August of that year.
Most of the funds for the project are for a highway that runs parallel to the runway at El Palomar airport and the Morón stream. The goal is in the future to supplant a section of the Waist Road with which trucks are taken from a sector of Morón and all of Hurlingham.
However, the advance of 29% registered by the DNV is not due to the construction of the highway, but corresponds to the accesses of the El Palomar Air Base converted into an air commercial station on February 9, 2018. Roads dealt with the resurfacing of the streets within the Morón Party and the "Arroyo Morón Highway" still awaits.
In Chubut, both the work on National Route 3 on the Chenque hill, in Comodoro Rivadavia, is stopped.
The roundabout of Trancas
In Tucumán, in addition to the construction of the defenses and the channel of the Pajas Coloradas stream and a 25-kilometer rehabilitation of Route 9 (with a 70% advance until April 2016), the “oblique roundabout of access to Quiet. " According to the DNV, the work began in October 2012. They were not finished during Fernández de Kirchner's government and were stopped in April 2016, already in the mandate of Macri.
The entrance to the Municipality located about 70 kilometers from San Miguel de Tucumán, has some sections already paved and others of rubble just on the curve of National Route 9.
Since 2015 he has accumulated more than 20 notes from the Commune to Roads to finish the work but he fell into the party fight. “They did a project that was wrong. Because that projection had a bridge at a high level, at an intersection in 'and'. And they started to make an intersection at the same level, as if it were a roundabout with concrete pipes. The works are terminated and the contract is paralyzed. We are having a legal problem trying to solve the amount of stupidities that were projected and the amount of silver that was stolen, ”said Ricardo Ascárate, who was the coordinator of the Belgrano Plan, in August last year.
With 66% progress, with several concrete roads already made, several claims to conclude the work and a focus on “road insecurity”, according to the Commune, governed by local Peronism. According to the original project, which does not include the bridge, there is almost $ 52 million left to finish the access roundabout.
In Mendoza, the paving of 63.3 kilometers of National Route 40 between Bardas Blancas and La Pasarela, was at 34% progress and was halted in November 2017, according to National Road data.
The North
The highway on National Route 11 on the border between Formosa and Chaco also has braked sections. Last year they enabled 20 kilometers.
The project to convert National Route 11 into a highway, has two sections with a formal start in August 2015 and a final work certification in February 2016, which marks only 5% progress. However, 20 kilometers were opened between the Primary and general elections last year. They are those that go from Tatané and San Hilario and were financed by the former Ministry of Transportation, through Vialidad Nacional, “based on an investment of more than $ 3.4 billion,” the previous management reported in September 2019.
Despite the habilitation of this section, the orange tachos and detours are visible in the five kilometers of access to the capital of the province. At the entrance and in front of the roundabout where the northern cross is, the main part of the road is damaged and the collectors are made. Almost in front of the provincial airport there are bridges built but they are not enabled.
The highway on National Route 11 on the border between Formosa and Chaco also has braked sections. Last year they enabled 20 kilometers.
The construction of 59-kilometer basic works on Provincial Route 9 is also registered in that province, beginning in June 2011 and a cut in August 2015, all under the presidency of Fernández de Kirchner, with a progress of 64%.
In turn, in La Rioja, it also enters the list with four works, two very advanced. The oldest is the road between La Rioja and Chilecito. Divided into two sections, one began in 2012 and was awarded to businessman Lázaro Báez. At the moment in Vialidad it registers it with a 59% advance in the 1883 kilometers that they had to build from the new mountain road. The other section, of 21.6 kilometers in March 2016, was 100%, although with a current balance of $ 1,639 million.
Patagonia
On National Route 22, in Río Negro, the National Road works were also stopped. (Daily courtesy of Río Negro)
Río Negro and Chubut are the three Patagonian provinces that accumulate works halted on emblematic routes.
Of the four works by Chubut, three are related to National Route 3, where, as in La Rioja, the company belonging to the businessman Lázaro Báez, detained with preventive detention, also appears among the companies awarded. The stabilization of the Chenque hill, started in December 2011 and with an advance of 82%, until April 2018, when the work was finished. In addition, between November 2018 and November 2019, the “conservation” of 27 kilometers of National Route 25 advanced by 23%, the only paved road that joins the coast with the mountains in Patagonia.
In Río Negro, National Route 23 appears in different sections, the second road that the country may have paved in Patagonia, from the sea to the Andes Mountains. In March and November 2018, two sectors were 100% and 89%, with a debt of $ 315 million. They are the ones that go from Maquinchao to Engineer Jacobacci and from Jacobacci to Comallo.
On National Route 22, in Río Negro, the National Road works were also stopped. (Daily courtesy of Río Negro)
And also the work on National Route 22, through which the production of fruit in the Upper Rio Negro Valley comes out. Started in February 2012, the last certificate of the Chichinales Cipolletti section, of 22 kilometers, was 25%.