After eight months of restrictions and work, They will enable traffic on the Santa Fe – Santo Tomé Highway Bridge starting next Monday, November 25. Since Wednesday, circulation has been completely cut off since they removed the Bailey bridge that they had put in temporarily.
This reopening was confirmed by National Highways, and those who pass through the area will be able to cross the bridge without the restrictions imposed by the modular metal bridge for the transport of passengers between both cities and the Greater Santa Fe conglomerate. They also confirmed that will establish a weight restriction for cargo vehicles with a single dual rear axle, except for long-distance buses that comply with the preventive range.
In this way, said restriction is added to the one in force for vehicles with two rear axles. These vehicles must use the Santa Fe-Rosario highway as an alternative. It should be noted that the previous weight limitation established by National Highways was 30 tons. It is estimated that the reopening of the bridge It will normalize and facilitate the movement of some 42 thousand vehicles.
With the installation of the Bailey, the only ones who could cross the viaduct that bypasses the Salado River were pedestrians and cars with people with disabilities; as well as bicycles, motorcycles and emergency and security units.
The impact of the closure has been considerable for the community. Merchants in São Tomé have reported a drastic drop in their sales, which has put many jobs at risk. In response, they have requested support measures, such as exemption from paying taxes, to mitigate the economic consequences of this situation.
The creation of a parallel bridge and the end of the work
Furthermore, with the closure, the province gave up seeking the approval of a new bridge to complement the existing one. However, The government of Santa Fe will invest more than $37,000 million in the work, considered a ”priority” for the administration of Maximiliano Pullaro and it is also included in the 2025 budget. Likewise, the bidding documents for the work have already been published and the envelopes will be opened on December 20: ”25 years of promises from different national governments have passed. We are going to do it and we are going to finish it in our management. In this way, we will solve all the problems it generated,” Pullaro said.
The new construction It will have two traffic lanes and will be located parallel to the existing one.. It will serve for the circulation of vehicles from Santa Fe to Santo Tomé.
In this way, and according to the schedule, on Saturday and Sunday the final work of the work will be carried out, where the lifting of the depressed deck will be completed and the final supports will be placed on the supplementary brackets, and then the verification load test will be carried out. of the structure.
They will also make repairs to the viaduct roadway and place steel plates at the joint of the elevated section to provide passability. At a later stage, with the bridge already enabled, the new definitive Thormack joints will be installed in all the intervened supports. Consequently, they will carry out load tests and remove the horizontal retention jacks and their supports on the roadway.
Finally, The six metal safety supports will be dismantled to make way for the repair of the road and the installation of temporary steel plates at the joint.
Source: Ambito
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