DEVELOPMENT: Plans for World’s Longest Bridge Go Forward

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Raul Ronzoni

MONTEVIDEO, May 4 1999 (IPS) - Plans to build the world’s longest bridge between Uruguay and Argentina will move closer to reality soon when the parliaments of both countries ratify a treaty to authorise the start of bidding on construction of the project, according to political sources.

The 42 kms bridge will join Punta Lara, near the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires with Colonia, a department located 190 kms west of Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital.

Construction of the bridge will reduce the distance that cars and trucks travelling between Buenos Aires and Montevideo must cover from 570 to 250 kilometres, and will also speed up the transportation of goods between Brazil and Argentina.

Work on the bridge is expected to begin in about four years and, when completed, it will be the principal link for the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) counties because most of the traffic between the bloc is over land.

The Uruguayan legislature will ratify the treaty “very quickly,” parliamentary sources assure IPS. Argentina also expects a favourable parliamentary vote, although with more difficulty than Uruguay, they believe.

Objections raised by various representatives would be smoothed over with the incorporation of a complementary project, the sources say.

In Buenos Aires, however, political sources say that a vote on the treaty could be delayed until after Argentina’s elections in October. Parliamentary ratification is indispensable for bidding on the work to begin.

Among the consortiums that have indicated they will compete in the bidding process for the 850 million dollars construction contract are companies from Argentina, Germany, the United States, Spain, Mexico and Sweden.

The work is expected to take 35 years to complete from the moment construction begins.

Financial analysts say that, to recover costs of the investment, there will have to be a toll to pass over the bridge of 60 dollars for cars, 225 for trucks and 360 for buses.

Estimated projections put the daily flow of traffic at 4,500 vehicles, of which 75 percent will be cars. The contract will thus earn average annual revenues of 200 million dollars in the first 10 years, according to analysts.

Another important source of income will be in the construction of hotels, restaurants and duty-free shops, which will provide an additional inflow of 50 million dollars per year.

Alejandro Gelsi, an Argentine representative on the binational Buenos Aires-Colonia Bridge Commission, dismissed some objections to building the bridge by bus companies.

In his opinion the complaints are “exclusively (based on) commercial interests” of the “oligarchic system of transportation” flowing between Argentina and Uruguay.

On the other hand, nobody is talking about the benefits, Gelsi says. In that respect, he underlined the fact that the tunnel under the English Channel reduced the cost of transportation between France and Britain by nearly one-half and improved service, as a result of free competition.

The airfare between Montevideo and Buenos Aires is 90 dollars one way, for a 20-minute flight, and by water, which takes two and a half hours, it costs 85 dollars per person. Transporting a car by boat costs 160 dollars.

The route between the two capitals can also be travelled by bus, across the binational Fray Bentos-Puerto Unzue Bridge, at a price per person of 55 dollars and a duration of eight hours.

Another Commission member, Reinaldo Agustoni, maintains that “the current transport tariffs (between the two countries) are very high,” and that “according to studies by the World Bank, those businesses, even if they reduce the costs by half, can continue to operate in a profitable manner.”

Agustoni also rejects environmental concerns, raised by organisations that fear an increase in the sedimentation rate of the Rio de la Plata.

“The construction will not affect the Rio de la Plata,” or its surrounding ecosystem and the increase in the sedimentation rate will be “depreciable.” The changes it will cause are all minor, he says.

The Rio de la Plata absorbs a great deal of sediment from the Parana and Uruguay Rivers, the two sources from which it originates, and navigation of its waters is reliant on frequent de- silting efforts.

Some experts have predicted that in the long run, the delta formed by the Parana between the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires and Entre Rios will be extended up to the Uruguayan coast. Even those who question the wisdom of the bridge believe that this will favor the reduction of silt in the Rio de la Plata.

Meanwhile in Uruguay, fears that the project will have a negative impact on the city of Colonia and its suburbs are starting to dissipate.

A poll taken by the Department of Sociology of the state University of the Republic reveals a majority of people in cities throughout the country are in favour of the bridge.

The poll also shows that, for the first time since 1996, the majority of the population of the department of Colonia accepts the bridge. In the department capital, where the Uruguayan commission headquarters will be located, acceptance rates were 80 percent, with 59 percent in the other areas polled. (FIN/IPS/tra- rr/ff/dv/ks/mk/99)