The Ministry of Public Works will revive some 70 works scheduled and discontinued during the government of Mauricio Macri under the public-private partnership system (PPP)whose tenders have a cost of one third of the projected values by the previous administration.
“This week I was in (the Buenos Aires town of) Cañuelas starting the first work ex PPP. We are putting them out to tender and we put them at the head of National Roads”explained the Minister of Public Works, Gabriel Katopodis, to Télam.
The minister warned that the tenders under this financing format “a third of what came out with the macrista government comes out.”
In this regard, he clarified that on a total of 70 works projected at the time under the PPP modality, barely “2%” progressed.
“These works will benefit the logistics and development of the entire productive area of the province of Buenos Aires,” the official pointed out.
Katopodis recalled that “it was a decision by President Alberto Fernández to put an end to a model that failed and harmed the interests of Argentine men and women”, and remarked that it was possible to “rescind the PPP contracts of the six road corridors and National Roads will go completing these works.
The project in Ezeiza-Cañuelas highway It consists of the reconstruction of the road along five kilometers, in two lanes with a width of 3.65 meters each and paved shoulders.
The works include excavation, compaction and placement of a new asphalt layer.
In addition, it will benefit the flow of 13,100 vehicles that travel daily for the transfer of agricultural-livestock products, from the center of Buenos Aires to the southern metropolitan area, as well as the tourist movement to and from the Ezeiza Airport.
The Ministry headed by Katopodis, through National Roads, tThe completion of around 70 ex-PPP works that barely advanced 2% in the previous government is in the pipeline.
One of the most important is the construction of the final section of the highway in the Buenos Aires town of San Miguel del Monte, which implies an investment of $10,309 million.
Too The construction of the highway in the Mercedes-Suipacha section (province of Buenos Aires) is planned, with an investment of $9,240 million.
In addition, an investment of $6,196 million was budgeted for the maintenance and resurfacing of the San Miguel del Monte Sur highway, between kilometers 104 and 113.
Other works advancing in the bidding process are ehe internal section of the access to Cañuelas via Pellegrini Street, with an investment of $5,092 million.
The section between General Villegas and Rufino will also be resurfaced, at an estimated cost of $4,568 million, while $485 million will be invested to maintain and repave the Buenos Aires-Rosario highway
The list is completed with the completion of works in the final section of the access to the Buenos Aires locality of Las Flores, the resurfacing of the Trenque Lauquén-Pellegrini section, and the construction of the Autopista 7-Carmen de Areco section.
The total investment estimated in this first bidding process for the works in Buenos Aires jurisdiction is around $46,000 million, according to the projections of Public Works
Regarding the evolution of public works in general, Katopodis stressed that “we currently have 3,700 works throughout the country.”
“There were 370 when we arrived (at the Government), of which 70% had been paralyzed since 2018, when they went to knock on the IMF’s door,” said the minister, who stated that “this moment in Argentina, after having resolved the heavy debt they left us, we feel compelled to govern with a very clear slogan, that they feel that the State and the Government take care of the people”.
