| Work Detail |
Route 7, held back by debt and the uncertainty of a new president
The 8.5 kilometer work was "neutralized" in September with the active strike of public works. The company asks for $500 million in the middle of the elections.
The work on Route 7, four lanes and part of the Vaca Muerta oil corridor, was stopped until there is a new president of the Nation in the 2023 elections. There is a debt of $500 million, the work is almost finished, but the company dismantled the workshop.
Regardless of who wins on October 22, the truth is that the work will not be resumed in the short term, unless an unexpected miracle happens in this context of crisis: the disbursement of that money that the UTE CN Sapag is asking for and Rovella-Carranza, for price determination and payment of work certificates.
The work had an official budget of $650 million at the beginning of 2021, and with expropriations, the change in the project and inflation, these days the work exceeds $4.5 billion. It cost seven times more than what was estimated in the pandemic.
The duplication of Route 7 comes with work three years ago in the midst of the pandemic. Photo: Sebastian Fariña Petersen
The duplication of Route 7 came with work three years ago in the midst of the pandemic. Photo: Sebastian Fariña Petersen
The issue reached politics. The national deputy of Together for Change in Neuquén, Pablo Cervi, requested that the Chamber of Deputies declare the need for the work to be completed, and requests that the funds be transferred from the Ministry of Public Works, chaired by Gabriel Katopodis.
Route 7: the unexpected abandonment
“This work is crucial to alleviate the intense traffic that this road receives, especially cargo vehicles, oil personnel, private vehicles and tourist services. The work includes the construction of a new roundabout at the intersection of both routes,” explained Deputy Cervi.
The scenario was confirmed to LMNeuquén by sources who have access to the contract, who maintained that technically the work is not stopped. That is to say, National Roads “neutralized” it so that the deadlines did not run, until further notice.
“It is as if there was a climate ban, but the truth is that they did not pay and they will not pay until there is a new president after December 10,” they indicated.
The work is 95% complete, with the 8.6 kilometers between the third Centenario roundabout and the intersection with Route 51. It has been in progress since the beginning of 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, where it had to be run until a gas pipeline, which Hidenesa is carrying out for more than $140,000.
On 11th Street, along Route 7, there was a workshop that was dismantled on September 15. There were machines that were finishing a part of the Vista Alegre roundabout, but they are no longer there.
The national “active strike”
The date on which the work was “neutralized” also coincides with a more than strange fact, which is the “active strike in defense of public works”, called by Minister Katopodis himself on September 12 . This measure applied to the entire country, due to the campaign announcements of state cuts, which in terms of workers reached around 500 thousand throughout the country. It was one more piece of information in the context of Sergio Massas presidential campaign.
But the strange thing is that after that “active strike,” the work on Route 7 was never resumed. There was even a conflict with a farmer on 10th Street, who asked that they not cut down a 100-year-old pine tree that his grandfather, a founder of Centenario, had planted.
The work on Route 7 to duplicate the road has been managed since the beginning of the Vaca Muerta boom. It was a road with a peaceful route, until 2015, when the traffic of trucks, drilling equipment, tanks and minibuses that are part of the oil traffic to Vaca Muerta became uncontrollable.
Over time the road broke down and the farmers who were around the route began to offer services to Vaca Muerta.
Expropriations and alternative route
The community of Centenario stood up to this monstrous flow of vehicles and asked to make a new route across the plateau. The negotiations took years and a month ago Route 67 was inaugurated, which connects from the North Highway to Route 51, with a 19-kilometer stretch of asphalt.
The route has undergone some modifications throughout history. In principle, there was a policy among Mayor Javier Bertoldi because the project was going to involve an 800-meter aerobic walk, which advanced over Provincial Road lands. This is the Néstor Kirchner promenade, in honor of the late former president, a management in which Centenario benefited from contributions for public works.
Bertoldi had asked that this walk and the eucalyptus trees not be touched, and Vialidad Provincia, together with the national government, modified the project. The consequences of that change were that the route has no shoulders between the second and third roundabouts.
Regarding the expropriations, there are around 10 owners of 11 farms on the way from Centenario to Vista Alegre, where the new road passes. Roads was able to make agreements with the owners to continue with the work. Even the Municipality asked some fronters at the time to “give up space” for the route.
In principle, as reported by Provincial Roads, there were 24 lots on the layout affected by the work and it was possible - due to the modification of the project - to only affect 11.
Only one farmer refused to sign and went to an expropriation trial. He is an old pioneer of the city, who guards the pine of his grandfather Santo Della Gáspera, planted 100 years ago, precisely when the founding of Centenario began. |
