| Work Detail |
In the last few hours it was learned that the National Highway Department reached an agreement with the company that is building the La Rinconada bridge, to pay the sums owed and sign an addendum to the contract. This contract includes the construction of the accesses to the bridge. Weeks ago, Governor Rolando Figueroa had requested that the work be transferred to the province in order to be able to finish it with its own resources, due to the delay of almost 18 years that it has experienced. The provincial government has now indicated that there was an agreement with the Nation to sign with the contractor executing the work, Juan M. Lavigne y Cía SA, the payment of outstanding work certificates and the redefinition of the contract to add the construction of the accesses to the bridge and railings, with its corresponding redetermination of prices. Figueroa had requested the National Highway Authority to transfer the work at the beginning of October, as he had stated that more than ten months have passed without any significant progress in the completion of the work, mainly due to the lack of payments by the Nation to the contractor, all of this without taking into account the delays, non-compliance and lack of financing generated by previous national governments. If at least the Nation would finish the bridge deck, and give up the completion of the accesses so that the Province of Neuquén with its own management and funds can complete that portion of the work, a prompt inauguration would be possible, he had requested. With this new development, the contractor would be in a better position to move forward with the work, which is now over 81% complete. But no one is risking a completion date, after years of frustration. The amount of the debt was also not disclosed, but the updated budget for the work last month already exceeded 3.402 billion pesos. The La Rinconada bridge over Route 40 was started in 2006 and was stopped at least five times over the years. It has two lanes, one for each direction of traffic, which will allow, once inaugurated, to speed up the connectivity of the southern area of ??Neuquén in a tourist circuit that is key to the provincial economy. |
