The Minister of Transportation and Public Works, José Luis Falero, said that the initiative may possibly be on a “fast track.”
Due to the repeated environmental and social questions regarding the route that the first highway would have in the Uruguay, the minister of Transportation and Public Works, José Luis Falero, communicated the possibility that the project will fall and end up being a fast track that a Montevideo with Cannelloni.
Despite having been received with great enthusiasm, the project of the first highway in the country is being strongly questioned due to the social and environmental impacts that the route that joins the two departments would imply. This could lead to the construction of an expressway, leaving behind the possibility of a “milestone” in the history of the Uruguay.
“We will possibly end up with a Fast Track. Because the routes that have been proposed to me – for the highway – were ten different ones, one by one they were studied and in all of them there was an impact, either environmental or social. We said that we are not going to do a work that provides a solution but that could cause environmental or social impacts,” said the head of the portfolio in dialogue with Arriba Gente on Channel 10.
However, Falero assured that “alternatives have been found on roads that we already have built, where we have found a width of strip that allows us to intervene,” referring to the route 101 and 8.
According to the route 101, the minister commented that “he has the possibility of making an improvement that could resolve two issues.” Falero recalled that during the previous administration a total of 11 roundabouts were made where the possibility of cars coming on a two-way road generating a traffic funnel was not considered.
“The solution we have is either we expropriate and make a wider roundabout or we take advantage of the expressway to make graded interchanges,” the minister said.
Environmental problems, the main obstacle
Delays in the layout of the highway may delay the start of its construction, which had been announced by Falero to take place in October of this year. However, the environmental issues harmed by the initiative are not a new topic on the table of the MTOP: In January, the Municipality of Canelones had already warned about the environmental problems that the construction would have, while the original idea of the new transit alternative passed through two basins, and one of them provides drinking water to Gold Coast.
The then interim mayor—now in office after the resignation of Yamandú Orsi—Marcelo Metediera — had said that the department viewed the construction of the expressway between the Canarian commune and Montevideo, He also assured that the problems have to do with the territorial planning since the construction would go through two watersheds. Although one of them is not protected and there would be no problem in building nearby, while the other has a different situation.
This basin is Swan Lagoon, and its impact was also noted by the residents of the area in the letter sent to Lacalle Pou. Therefore, this was not the first time that the government became aware of the negative social and environmental impact of the project.
Source: Ambito
