The map of the thousand works paralyzed by Javier Milei in the province of Buenos Aires

The most affected municipalities

According to a survey of Scopethe municipalities with the most paralyzed works are Almirante Brown (27), Avellaneda (24), Quilmes and San Miguel (23 each), La Matanza and Merlo (21 each), Esteban Echeverría and Lomas de Zamora (20 each), and Lanús (18). They are followed by Escobar, Florencio Varela and Malvinas Argentinas (15 each); Mercedes (11); General San Martín and Ezeiza (10 each); Moreno and Bolívar (9 each); and José C. Paz, Pilar, Presidente Perón and Tres de Febrero (8 each). Also, Berazategui, Cañuelas and Junín register 7 stopped works, while General Pueyrredón, Guaminí, Ituzaingó and Las Flores report 6 each.

With 5 stopped works there are San Isidro, Azul, Carlos Casares, Carmen de Areco, Coronel Suárez, La Plata, Morón, Navarro, Pergamino, Tigre and Vicente López. Finally, with 4 paralyzed projects they are Benito Juárez, Bahía Blanca, Castelli, Exaltación de la Cruz, Luján, Mar Chiquita, Monte, Veinticinco de Mayo, Adolfo Gonzales Chaves and Alberti.

The most emblematic works paralyzed

In several municipalities, the mayors chose to place signs on the construction signs to remind residents that the work stoppage was a decision of the national government.

One of the large suspended projects is the dredging of the Magdalena Canalwhich seeks to give Argentina a direct exit route to the ocean without depending on the port of Montevideo, allowing the connection between maritime and river traffic.

In addition, the construction of the President Perón Highwaydesigned to extend the Buen Ayre road from the Western Access to La Plata. This is a strategic work, given that it will form the third ring road of the AMBA, will connect 12 municipalities and will benefit the circulation and road safety of 12 million people.

The province, in response, requested the Nation to transfer both initiatives, both the Presidente Perón Highway and the Magdalena Canal, in order to be able to continue them under its own management.

Among the great works that the libertarian government left on the verge of paralysis is the Riachuelo Systeman expansion of the sewer network that could improve the quality of life for 4.5 million inhabitants of the Buenos Aires suburbs.

At the same time, the president Milei stopped the construction of 1,413 homes from the Procrear II program in Berazategui; the New Mariano Acosta Municipal Hospital in Merlo; the offices of the Santamarina Hospital in Tandil; and a penitentiary unit in Florencio Varela.

In educational infrastructure, they were affected 16 initiatives for universities and 6 secondary vocational education technical schools were left without continuity, as were 91 child development centers.

Other important works that the national administration will not carry out are the New Territorial Center for Gender and Diversity of La Plata; six Day Houses for Youth; and 247 of Plan Argentina Hace, a program that sought to improve infrastructure in municipalities.

At the same time, the transformation of RN 3 from Cañuelas to Azul into a highway was paralyzed; and road access to Bahía Blanca, key for that city. Improvements in the accesses of national routes 3, 7, 33 and 226 were also paralyzed.

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The paralysis of public works also hits the highways and routes of the Province.

Among the stopped constructions are the new sewage liquid treatment plants in Patagones, General Madariaga, San Antonio de Areco, Carlos Casares and Villa Gesell, as well as the expansion of the plant in Saladillo and the New Modular Sanitary Center in Villarino.

The new offices at the Ramón Santamarina Hospital in Tandil; the refunctionalization of Hotel No. 4 of the Chapadmalal Tourist Unit; the New Space for Memory and Promotion of Human Rights in Campo de Mayo; and the Restoration of the Pilgrim’s Rest and the Basilica of Luján are other works put on hold by Milei.

The reaction of the Buenos Aires government did not take long to arrive: together with 30 mayors, the ministers presented a request to the National Ministry of Economy last June to recover funds destined for these works. When receiving no response, the province decided to assume responsibility for 324 projects, which include 86 child development centers and 38 works in universities and 200 water, sewer and sanitation projects.

In that sense, Kicillof signed this week agreements with universities to reactivate paralyzed infrastructure works, which represents an investment of $26,762 million.

“Public works are key to provincial development,” highlighted Gabriel Katopodis, provincial Minister of Infrastructure and Public Services, to Scope and assured that the province will continue investing in these types of projects. The official maintained that “A healthy administration of provincial resources allows us to apply a model completely opposite to that of the national government, which paralyzes the works that were in progress” and stressed that the provincial administration “will continue down this path.”

How does the province continue to move forward with public works despite Milei’s billion-dollar adjustment? Readjusting the budget: Of the $248 billion expected for infrastructure in 2024, investment rose to $649 billion in October and is projected at $698 billion for December. Furthermore, to optimize resources, they explained in the province, it was decided almost not to tender new construction, but to dedicate all efforts to finishing the work in progress.

Public works are not progressing

The pace of public works in the province of Buenos Aires shows a strong slowdown. At the end of 2023, the Ministry of Public Works had 2,308 projects underway throughout the country. Today, that number has been drastically reduced: only 97 are still active.

Spending on public infrastructure was barely 23% of the initial budget and was reduced more than 80% compared to the previous year, which impacted 104 thousand jobs in the construction sector.

Meanwhile, the libertarian administration raised $1.6 billion through taxes such as PAÍS and SISVIAL, but only allocated 8.71% to infrastructure, far from the 30% required by law.

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Housing, one of the sectors most affected by the paralysis of public works.

In that sense, Katopodis was blunt: “To date, the Infrastructure area of ​​the national government has only executed 23% of its budget: there is money,” and he considered that “paralyzing the works has consequences: the development of a region and a country is slowed, the situation worsens. quality of life for families, produces unemployment and bankruptcy of companies.”

“It is one of the worst decisions a government can make: Milei, Caputo and Sturzenegger did it, they left the country without public works,” He remarked and stressed that “in the province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof made and deepened the exact opposite decision. “Our model is diametrically opposed, and time will show, although it is already doing so, which one works best for the Province and for all of Argentina,” he said.

The debts

In Buenos Aires, the reduction in national funds represented a drop of 24% in real terms during the first eight months of 2024. The accumulated national cut exceeds $6 billion, of which $4.4 billion corresponds to the stoppage of almost a thousand works in Buenos Aires.

All in all, between January and October, the Buenos Aires government inaugurated 163 works with its own resources: from the construction of homes, gardens, schools and university centers, to road, water and sewage works in 83 of the 135 municipalities that make up the Buenos Aires map.

In La Plata they assure that, despite the financial suffocation of the Nation, they will make extreme efforts to continue investing in a public work that they consider key to provincial development.