2023-12-31 03:00:00
With the beginning of the new local governments, there is expectation for the start of large pending works, which will be developed starting in 2024.
Commuter train of Valle del Cauca
In Valle del Cauca, one of the most important projects is the commuter train, which has become the department’s big bet on mobility and might be a national example.
The elected mayors of Cali, Palmira, Yumbo and Jamundí and the next governor of the Valley, Dilian Francisca Toro, will have to carry out intense negotiations with the National Government in this new year so that the works of the first section of the so-called light rail can start in the 2025.
(You can read: ‘The commuter train impacts the region with a section from Cali to Jamundí, not just Pance’)
Valle Commuter Train.
Photo:
Valley Government.
Several things are still missing, for example, achieving technical endorsement from the Ministry of Transportation, as well as fiscal endorsement from the Ministry of Finance.
It is also necessary to obtain the Conpes of Strategic Importance for the project and the approval of future validity of the Nation and the territorial entities in the Valley.
The idea is that the investment resources are distributed like this: 70 percent to the Nation and 30 percent among the four municipalities involved. And, in addition, the co-financing agreement (Confis) needs to be moved forward.
The route includes a total of four sections. They go from Cali to Palmira, from Cali to Yumbo, from Cali to Jamundí and from El Ramal to the Alfonso Bonilla Aragón airport. There will be a central station on the section between Cali and Jamundí, which will operate where the Metrocali facilities are, which is the old train station and will be the new arrival point of a renewed train: a light and electric train that will shorten distances with displacements 45 minutes.
(Of your interest: New step for the Valle Cercanías Train to become a reality: application for endorsement is filed)
Layout of the commuter train in Valle del Cauca.
4 billion pesos are needed for the first section: that from Cali to Jamundí. Four years ago, the estimated cost of that journey was 1.7 billion pesos.
Although it was proposed that the works would start in 2023, so that the section to Jamundí would come into operation within the next two years, the truth is that in 2024 the new mayors will have to put all the accelerator on it so that it is awarded in 2025. the construction of that first line, with an extension of 23.6 kilometers, of the 73.4 in total of this project.
The train is a project that will last many years (…). The initial design is well done and the studies have been with the most serious companies in the world
Alejandro Eder, elected mayor of Cali, stated that “the train is a project that will last many years (…). The initial design is well done and the studies have been with the most serious companies in the world.”
For her part, María Isabel Ulloa, executive director of ProPacífico, said: “The project is going as we announced a month ago. “The mayors must continue with this process before the ministry so that we can achieve technical approval.”
Along the 23.6 kilometers of the first section, 36 single trains will run with 18 double trains. Each train will have a capacity of up to 1,000 passengers, and will travel with a frequency of between six and seven minutes.
The Toyo Tunnel, in Antioquia, the longest in America
Antioquia will bet on its connection with Urabá and hopes to have the Guillermo Gaviria Echeverri (GGE) or Toyo Tunnel ready by 2024, which will be the longest in the country at 9.73 km and will help the journey between Medellín and Urabá is reduced to four and a half hours of travel. The project has been progressing and, for example, on October 6 the excavations were completed.
This 2023, the excavation fronts that joined the 9.73-kilometer corridor of the connection that crosses below the Alto del Toyo, on the road being built towards Urabá, were achieved.
Photo:
Jaiver Nieto Álvarez /ETCE
However, the challenge is to guarantee the resources that the Nation must provide for the complementary roads of the project, as well as for the procurement and installation of electromechanical equipment for the tunnel.
The pride is because it is the longest tunnel in America, but additionally it is what it will mean for the economy, for the development, for the progress of the country in general.
“The pride is because it is the longest tunnel in America, but additionally it is what it will mean for the economy, for the development, for the progress of the country in general, and especially for the entire center and southwest of Colombia” said Governor Aníbal Gaviria.
The departmental leader, who leaves office today, reiterated the importance of this mega-project, which has been in the department’s mind for 50 years and which began to materialize five years ago.
The excavation began in mid-2018 and throughout this process 1.4 million cubic meters of earth and rock have been removed, which is approximately 50 percent of the volume of the pyramid of Giza or Cheops. The excavated material is equivalent to 95,000 dump trucks, that is, a row from Medellín to Cabo de la Vela.
(We recommend: Light at the end of the road!: Antioquia completes excavation of the longest tunnel in Colombia)
The 80 Metro, a transportation goal for Medellín
The 80 Metro will be regarding 12.5 km long
Photo:
Medellin’s town hall
In the case of Medellín, 2023 was vital to achieve the signing of the contract to start works on the 80 metro, which will be the third metro line in the capital of Antioquia. Thus, in 2024 the physical works of this important project will begin, which will benefit one million people in the west of the city and will be ready between 2028 and 2029.
The railway issue in 2024 will also be definitive, since it will be known whether the Tren del Río project, which will serve as support for line A of the metro, will be co-financed or not by the Nation through the meter law.
(You can read: This is how the purchase of the 1,234 properties needed to build the 80 Metro is going)
The project is in final details in order to be presented to the Ministry of Transportation and obtain technical endorsement, and thus move on to the financial endorsement phase, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance.
Likewise, there are expectations regarding what will happen with Hidroituango, which already has four units generating energy, and the signed contract for civil works with the Colombian firm Consorcio CYS, made up of Yellow River CO LTD Sucursal Colombia and Schrader Camargo SAS.
Prototype of the 80 Metro
With 50 percent of Hidroituango in operation – and taking into account that EPM transfers 55 percent of its profits per year to the District of Medellín – it is estimated that the budget that Federico Gutiérrez has in his second mayoralty will be the largest of the history of the city.
The elected governor of Antioquia, Andrés Julián Rendón, will have to sort out what happens with the mining delegation, something that has not been extended. If not done, he would strip the department of the autonomy it has maintained in this industry.
Coastal Protection works in Cartagena
In the case of Cartagena, the main project that the National Government will complete in 2024 in the city is coastal protection. This is the largest work that the State has undertaken so far in the fight once morest marine erosion in the country, which today threatens to devour the tourist area of Bocagrande and the Historic Center, the jewel of national tourism.
The execution of this project is headed by the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) and has a value of 160,000 million pesos. The Nation contributed 100,000 million and the city, 60,000 million more. The work is 85 percent complete, and although, according to the UNGRD, at least 50,000 million more are missing, the project will be completed in 2024.
(Also read: Delays in coastal protection works in Cartagena affect hotel operations)
This is how the Coastal Protection works for Cartagena are going
Photo:
John Montaño/ EL TIEMPO
From this first work emerges the Gran Malecón del Mar, one of the most anticipated works in Cartagena for 2024, and was one of the campaign promises of the elected mayor, Dumek Turbay.
The coastal protection works of the city, which go from Bocagrande to the El Cabrero neighborhood, which are 85 percent advanced, will be the basis on which the Great Malecón del Mar would be executed, which begins in Bocagrande and ends in Playa Azul from La Boquilla, connecting the northern beaches of the city with the Historic Center and the tourist area of Bocagrande.
This project promises the construction of cycle paths, linear parks and food areas along a large part of the Cartagena coastal area.
Another project for the city in 2024 is the Chambacú Sports Unit, a mega sports complex that promises to give life to a depressed area a few meters from the Historic Center, today occupied by street dwellers and drug dealers.
(Also: Erosion on a beach has put in check works for coastal protection in Cartagena)
Bocagrande: Playa 5, is part of the works for the coastal protection of Cartagena.
The Unit would be connected to the Espíritu del Manglar park, a children’s park in the middle of nature that the elected mayor, Dumek Turbay, inaugurated during his period as governor of Bolívar.
Another work with which the authorities seek to provide quality of life to the people of Cartagena and visitors is the boardwalk over the Ciénaga de la Virgen, a project that seeks to change the face of one of the most vulnerable areas of the city, made up of the so-called historic poverty belt of Cartagena, made up of neighborhoods such as Olaya Herrera, Candelaria and El Pozón. This boardwalk will be built on the perimeter road, also preventing the further invasion of this body of water with fills and thickening the belts of misery.
NATION EDITORIAL – EL TIEMPO
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