Part of the board of the National Ports Administration (ANP), headed by its president Juan Curbelo, arrived at the Palmyra terminal to present the works that will be carried out in the short and long term.
In a climate of satisfaction and speaking of the present and the future, the port authorities headed by President Curbelo, Vice President Cap. De Navío ® Daniel Loureiro, the architect of the works Gonzalo Baranda and the port captain, Andrés Passarino, presented the works last 11 including plans, priorities and a detailed detail of the planned works.
The first voice was that of President Juan Curbelo, who stated that “we came to report on investments to be made in the department of Colonia and particularly in Nueva Palmira.”
The president stressed that he is convinced that investments are revitalizing and for this reason “we are going to invest 45 million dollars in the department of Colonia, in different works: in the passenger terminal of Colonia more than 20 million dollars, in the repair of the wooden dock also in Colonia, in the dredging of Isla Sola at the entrance to Carmelo and in Nueva Palmira with several works that we have come to announce”.
In the first semester
Curbelo said that works will be carried out already in the first semester with very important amounts, “it seems to us that they are essential for the maintenance of the current activity and for the development of future activity in the port of Nueva Palmira.”
These works will require about ten million dollars to be carried out in different stages. The first will be this semester with “the reconstruction of the union pier, which is in very poor condition, and we have made the political decision to carry out this reconstruction.”
In this work, defenses for the berths will be placed and “the overseas pier will be rebuilt, which, although it is not as deteriorated as the union pier, also needs repairs.”
Changes in structure, inputs and scales
The current port administration will carry out a change in the port area, with the construction of new offices, two scales, favoring the entry of trucks through the south gate of the public port area next to Corporación Navios, and the objective is to leave a free esplanade so that in the future you can work with containers.
“There will be many improvements. The first will be for our employees, who have been working in container offices for many years and we think it is important to take this measure. The work will begin in this first semester and it will be a building that has a cost of more than a million dollars”, indicated Curbelo. And he stressed that when the building is ready “the current offices will be demolished, the containers will be removed and we will have a large esplanade that will be very important for the development of port activity.”
“We think and are convinced that by the end of 2024 these works will be completed and with this we will be advancing, because the port of Palmira, the main bulk port in the country, requires many works, investments, and they can be done due to the excellent years we have had in the years 2021 and 2022 with the current administration,” said Curbelo.
The captain of the Port of Nueva Palmira, Andrés Passarino, remarked that “the importance of the construction of the two scales, because for port operations it is essential and it is what carriers have claimed for years, because they argue and it is true, that the The current balance has been left behind and it is a reality that a bottleneck becomes for us and both would be built where TGU’s income is”.
How the works are thought
Asked if the drought has affected port activity, why are the investments still being made, Curbelo replied that “we do not do the works for one or two harvests, we do them looking to the future, and the port of Nueva Palmira, due to its strategic location, is very relevant for us and we do the works projecting ourselves into the future”.
The ports in Soriano
President Juan Curbelo was asked about the port projects on the Uruguay River in the department of Soriano, and he replied that he knows that there are two projects and that he is favorable to “the creation of new ventures or port projects to stimulate a port movement that we don’t have today. We are talking about particular projects, with defined loads, which are not the current ones. As a national authority, we welcome the development of projects that comply with all environmental measures and existing regulations in our country.”
Carmel channel
Regarding the dredging of the Isla Sola channel, which is neither more nor less than the entrance door to the Carmelo dock or the entrance to the Arroyo de las Vacas from the Río de la Plata, the president of the ANP said that they are “forward The bidding process was awarded to a company, but the company that was not awarded filed an appeal and in the board meeting the previous week we declared that this appeal is not suspensive in order to continue the process.”
Therefore, “as of today, the awarded company was notified that it has to present guarantees, and once it does, we will be able to sign the contract. Therefore, what we are able to convey is that after that the dredging works will begin.”
