| Work Detail |
Santa Fe-Santo Tomé Bridge: a key project for the region enters the bidding phase
The new bridge that will unite Santa Fe and Santo Tomé will become a reality thanks to a provincial investment of $37,589,125,618.46, destined to improve connectivity and resolve historical traffic problems in the Department of La Capital. The bidding documents are already available, and the opening of envelopes will take place on Friday, December 20 at 8 p.m., at the Santo Tomé head of the current link.
The work, included in the 2025 Budget, represents a priority for the provincial administration. During the announcement, Governor Maximiliano Pullaro stated: “25 years of promises from different national governments have passed. We are going to do it and we are going to finish it during our administration. This work is possible thanks to efficient administration and the correct allocation of public resources.”
Project details
The project includes three sectors, two of which are the headwaters and surrounding works in the towns of Santo Tomé and Santa Fe and the other is the bridge itself over the Salado River.
At the head of Santa Fe, the demolition of the existing concrete pavement is planned, which has numerous potholes and deteriorated slabs. Then, the construction of two 9.30 m wide roads is planned (two 3.65 meter wide lanes and a 2 meter wide shoulder), one of them on the existing embankment (practically coinciding with the pavement to be demolished) and the other on an embankment that is planned to be built to the north of the existing one. It will also have complementary works such as lighting, landscaping, construction of a bike path, among others.
At the head of Santo Tomé, a conversion of the existing traffic direction is proposed, which broadly can be summarized as preventing the left turn on Mitre Street for the lane that runs from Santa Fe to Santo Tomé, and changing the direction of Avenida Mitre in the last two blocks before reaching Avenida 7 de Marzo (entrance to the Carretero bridge), turning it into a one-way south-north direction.
These works are not only to adapt the situation to the project, but also to improve the flow of traffic.
The demolition of the existing pavement and the construction of a new rigid pavement are planned in the areas mentioned, while bicycle lanes, sidewalks, lighting and landscaping are also planned. For both ends of the road, the pavement planned is of the rigid type, composed of a sub-base of soil improved with lime, a 20 cm thick base of soil and sand and cement and a 20 cm thick H-35 simple concrete pavement.
The bridge section is 1,300 metres long. The superstructure is made up of 43 sections of 30.80 metres in length, each consisting of 5 post-tensioned beams on which a 17 cm thick reinforced concrete deck is supported, cast in situ. The infrastructure is made up of 42 piers, which were divided into Viaduct Piers and Channel Piers. In the case of the Viaduct Piers (sector over the flood plain), there are 35 and they are made up of an upper head of 1.40m x 1.20m, which rests on three piles – columns with a diameter of 1.00m each.
In addition, the project includes protection against erosion of the abutment on the Santa Fe side, by placing a geotextile blanket and geocells filled with concrete, to prevent deterioration of the abutment.
On the Santo Tomé side, a rock wall with a slope of 1:2 is planned at the foot of the existing protection. The width of the deck is 12.50 meters, made up of a 8.30 meter section for two-lane vehicular traffic, 1.50 meters reserved for the location of a bicycle path, and 1.50 meters for a pedestrian sidewalk. Lighting of the entire bridge and the installation of metal fenders and railings are also planned. |
