Starting 2023 with the Regional avenue, between Ancón Sur and Mayorca, completely paved will not be possible. The inconveniences with the installation of the aqueduct networks for the south of the Aburrá Valley, in addition to the increase in the prices of inputs for this work, led to the fact that an extension and an addition of resources between the entities had to be requested. contributors.
The first thing that transpired was that Invías requested a budget and time addition for all of 2023, a procedure that the mayor of Sabaneta, Santiago Montoya, considers as something normal due to the complexity of the works, which are carried out in the middle of traffic on the road that serves as the gateway from the south of the country to the Aburrá Valley. This situation is perhaps the most complex to handle given the congestion it has caused among road users.
Time-consuming network works
The first setback suffered by the work schedule has to do with the installation of new aqueduct networks by EPM that will benefit La Estrella and Caldas, both municipalities with problems in the supply of drinking water.
“There was a delay in the coordination times with EPM for the installation of these networks, a situation that generated great disagreement and even delays in the start of all paving. The explanation is that the contractor had had problems with the purchase of the pipe, due to the problems with maritime transport that have been experienced throughout the world,” said Mayor Montoya.
There were even discussions regarding how the installation of these networks was going to be done, since, according to Montoya, the public service company was asking for authorization to open the road, while the mayor opposed it to avoid a greater mobility crisis in this runner.
After this situation was overcome, the paving work began, although already two months late, since it was planned to start at the beginning of June and the road was finally intervened from the second half of August.
But the protests on October 26, added to the increase in supplies for the paving of the entire 4-kilometer corridor, also meant that the planned goal was not met and with it resources had to be added.
Initially, there was talk that the Metropolitan Area, the Antioquia Governor’s Office and Invías were going to allocate $11,000 million to leave this national highway as new, which had serious cracking problems and dozens of holes that put the safety of drivers at risk. and the state of the automobiles that transited there.
“But inflation, the world crisis and the cost of inputs caused the entire project to increase because there is no contractor that can work with current values,” said the president.
Until now, it has not been established how much the budget addition will be, guaranteed in the addendum that was signed in recent days, because the projection is still being made for the increase in the dollar and the behavior of the economy.
night jobs
The advantage is that this extension, initially, would not be represented by more traffic jams if you come from the Southwest or South of the country towards Medellín. All because it is planned to start night work in the coming days, confident that in these periods there will be no prolonged rains that cause delays.
“It is good news, that it would no longer be necessary to do the work in the day, which has caused us so many headaches, in the next stages of this project. Although they will continue next year, the idea is that there will no longer be so many affectations and that is how the entities that have complementary works in this way have been made aware.
The mayor specified that these night jobs should start soon to avoid the impact on mobility due to the inconveniences that were already experienced last October when there were protests because road users complained regarding the delays, in some cases up to two hours to cross a section of 4 kilometers.
According to Mayor Montoya, despite the inconveniences caused by the delays, the works will not be suspended during the Christmas season and the works are expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year.
3
It has been months since the execution of the paving on Regional Avenue.
11.000
million pesos was the initial cost of this work, whose value will increase.
