| Work Detail |
It has an assigned budget, a joint venture awarded the tender, although the fight for the redetermination of prices and costs slows down its definition
Almost urban section. The entrance through the highway is congested with vehicles until the entrance to Rosario.Virginia Benedetto
Almost urban section. The entrance through the highway is congested with vehicles until the entrance to Rosario.
The construction of a third lane at the beginning of the highway to Buenos Aires, between the Circunvalación and the A012 route, which includes a new bridge over the Saladillo stream, has a draft executive project done, a joint venture awarded the tender and an assigned budget for this year, but is still in a tug of war for the signing of the contract. Thus, the plan remains stalled.
It is not just about this specific case. On the contrary, most of the infrastructure works were submerged in the economic uncertainty that produced high inflation and a redetermination of prices that does not finish satisfying the contracting companies.
The remodeling of the highway was announced more than two years ago and establishes a 24-month deadline for completion.
In this way, it was announced that it was going to be expanded with a third lane between the Circunvalación and the A012, a 9-kilometre section to specify an embankment and asphalt on the central flowerbed, bridges in the Saladillo stream and in Alvear, and the resurfacing of route 33 between Pujato and Zavalla. All this under an initial budget of more than 3,500 million pesos.
"The third lane on the highway to the Federal Capital represents a great benefit for the high traffic of the industrial sector and the conglomerate together with all the through movement of cargo and passenger transport, and cars that travel daily," he had told La Capital the director of National Highway District Santa Fe, Fabio Sánchez.
The expansion included two bridges over the Saladillo stream, one in each direction of circulation. These new viaducts, 144 meters long, will have three lanes per hand, so the current structures must be demolished.
Likewise, another two new bridges will be built over the Miter railroad tracks, at kilometer 283, with removal of the existing ones. Another important piece of information is the construction of a bridge to complete the access interchange to Alvear, via Piedrabuena street.
The project also establishes a readjustment of income and expenses in the current interchange that links the highway with Villa Gobernador Gálvez through provincial route 22.
All these road works in Gran Rosario must be complemented with the new horizontal demarcation of the road and the corresponding vertical signage adapted to the third lane throughout the section.
Until there, the "technical sheet" of a project that has not yet signed the contract. In the middle there is a story very similar to other major works. It should be remembered that this project was included in the Public Private Participation (PPP) contracting model, used during the administration of former President Mauricio Macri, which provided for a preliminary project. Although, already with the final guidelines, the winning firm was a Transitory Union of Companies (UTE) made up of companies with a local seal.
Therefore, the executive project, which already has a draft and details to adjust details with National Highway, awaits the signing of the final contract. However, with the departure of the now former Minister of Finance of the Nation, Martín Guzmán, the decoupling with the prices of construction inputs began.
The problem lies in the update rate; prices have so many fluctuations that they led to a brake on the definitions.
In the case of the bridges, they have a higher cost than the embankment and asphalt layer that the 9 kilometers of the third lane represent. Each pipeline involves steel and concrete, which are updated with the skyrocketing of the dollar and leave behind the official budgets of the tenders in a short time.
Although the budget should be updated with the signing of the contract, the tussle is between the businessmen, who are now questioning some points of the price update index, which is approved by the Ministry of Public Works. As an example, the values ??assigned to fuel are calculated in the Federal Capital when inland they have a significantly higher cost and their supply is complex.
The debate is given at the national level for all public works. In this case and in others, the idea is to carry out the work, but everything returns to the same thing: the parties have to agree on the starting amount, the current values, the redetermination of prices and the variables that are applied according to what they mean in the inflationary context.
In addition to the third lane, what was included in that bidding package was the resurfacing of 14 kilometers of National Route 33, between kilometers 754 and 768, that is, between the jurisdictions of Pujato and Zavalla. The work comes to complete a section of this corridor that was left without repairs by the previous concession, annulled by the national Ministry of Public Works for non-compliance. And they included milling, patching and resurfacing of the road, and an interchange of the 33 with the A012, located between both towns. The term of execution of the works had been calculated in eight months.
Another emblematic work paralyzed
Another paradigmatic work that suffers the same effect of the paralysis due to the inflationary effect is the Monument to the Flag. Last December it had been announced that its remodeling was entering the definition stage. But so far, the awarding of the works remains on standby. The two companies that submitted their bids to complete the project presented amounts that almost double the planned budget.
Apparently, the Legal area of ??the Ministry of Public Works of the Nation has for its preparation the resolution that will later be submitted to the Secretary of Public Works to sign the award. But here too the inflationary impact delayed the procedures.
The "novel" of the spare parts to the Monument has been dragging on for years and the announcements had all the last presidents as protagonists. There were stages that were announced and then reformulated, delayed and done halfway.
After intense efforts by the municipality, the works were tendered on July 18. At the end of September the envelopes were opened with the offers of the two companies interested in carrying out the task: DyScon SA, from Rosario, and Cocivial SA, from San Nicolás.
The problem, as is the case with the joint venture interested in making the third lane of the highway to Buenos Aires, is that the offers from both comfortably exceeded the official budget of 500 million pesos to carry out the work. The Rosario construction company quoted them at 967 million, almost double, and the Nicolean firm valued them at 1,024 million. And the difference in the amounts stretches the adjudication of the works.
The offer evaluation stage delayed all the initial deadlines due to this factor: the companies do not want to start the tenders that are yet to be defined with unbalanced prices.
If signed this month, the long-awaited remodeling will include the unfinished parts of the previous stages that were "reprofiled": the recovery of the base of the tower, the mast, the fountain at the bow, the side passages that are next to the Civic Patio , the Propylaea, the esplanade of the Juramento Passage, the Hall of Flags, the exhibition hall that is under the tower and the grating of the viewpoint. In addition, an access ramp will be made and a chair lift will be placed.
Along with this, the elevator that goes up to the tower viewpoint will be fixed, bars will be repaired and a total cleaning of the Civic Patio and atrium will be carried out. |
