Starting this Wednesday, April 6, there will be a counterflow on Las Américas Avenue, between Carreras 74 and 62, in western Bogotá. This will apply between 6 am and 9 am to better manage traffic on that busy city road.
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According to figures from the Ministry of Mobility, more than 7,500 vehicles from west to east and about 3,300 cars from east to west at rush hour. According to estimates by the Secretary of Mobility, Felipe Ramírez, this journey, which normally lasts between 30 and 40 minutes, will take 12 or 15 minutes.
HOW WILL IT WORK?
Schedule: 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
What does it consist of: The contraflow will allow for an additional lane to go up Avenida de las Américas between Carreras 74 and 62, in the west-east direction.
Who does it work for: Light vehicles (cars, vans and campers). Motorcycles, pedicabs and bicycles will not be able to use this lane.
The route: Said counterflow will begin in race 74, near Portal Banderas, and will end in race 62, Outlets de las Américas sector, with an approximate distance of three (3) kilometers.
To enter the contraflow lane –which will be a lane of the east-west road–, drivers must make a slight turn at the height of race 74, just above Banderas, on the return of the mid lane.
“In order to take measures like this, we need to have the necessary infrastructure so that the vehicles can take that lane that we are setting up as a contraflow. For this reason, the work that we are carrying out in the sector so that this is a simple turn and the vehicles can take the counterflow and not end up congesting that return of the 74, which is an important return”, stated the secretary.
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Once in that lane, light vehicles will be able to advance throughout the Americas until they reach race 62. There, under the management of civil agents and traffic units, they will turn left to take Carrera 62 through the outlet sector and reach Calle 13. For this mobility operation there will be between 20 and 30 support units .
Even when: At the moment, there is no end date for this measure. The Ministry of Mobility will be evaluating its operation. “We do not have an estimated completion date. It will be every business day between 6 and 9 am, and as we see the effects of this average we will know how long we will have it.“, assured the Secretary.
Operation and control: Between 20 and 30 transit units will support logistics for counterflow management. There will also be a check on the poorly parked in the area of the outlets to allow the flow of traffic.
Counterflow Las Americas
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Why is it done?: In this area, high-impact works are being carried out, such as the construction on Av. Ciudad de Cali, the construction of the Transmilenio system on Carrera 68, the works derived from the First Metro Line project on Av. 1 de Mayo , among other.
Will it also apply at night?: In the peak hours of the late afternoon and early evening there is another traffic jam during the return home. However, for now, there will be no backflow or any measure for that rush hour; although it is not ruled out. “In the afternoon hours we are thinking of taking measures like this, but we need to do an infrastructure analysis in order to understand between which sections we could take these measures and where there would really be a benefit for afternoon traffic. The peak in the morning is much more complex”, argued the secretary.
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On the other hand, faced with questions about whether it would not be more effective to expand the vehicular bridges of the Americas, since bottlenecks are formed there, Nicolás Correal, Undersecretary of Mobility, explained that long-term measures are being evaluated, but – he added – For now, counterflow will be an option in the immediate term.
“What the measure seeks is to alleviate the bottlenecks that we have due to infrastructure and that the vehicles do not go to that constriction that exists in Boyacá or in the 68. But we continue working with the IDU in the different projects to see how they begin to harmonize. For example, the project for the TransMilenio trunk road through 68 has an intervention there and a depressed one to make a connection between the TransMilenio trunk road 68 and that of the Americas.”, detailed Correal.
BRIEFCASE
With information from EL TIEMPO*
