| Work Detail |
The sector where the work has progressed the least: next to the pedestrian crossing that connects Avenida de Mayo with Güemes Street
The sector where the work has progressed the least: next to the pedestrian crossing that connects Avenida de Mayo with Güemes Street, with a train making a stop in the middle of the road.
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A public tender was called for, with bids from interested parties opening on December 17 and a deadline of 7 months. This is the rehabilitation of the central platform, a project that was launched in 2015 and began in 2016, with successive and extensive stoppages.
The national government has decided to complete the remodeling of the Ramos Mejía station on the Sarmiento Line, a project that began 8 years ago and has been halted several times, causing multiple problems for users due to the lack of access to the platforms that replaced the central one.
However, we will have to wait a bit longer: the opening of bids for those interested in carrying out the work will take place on December 17, so we will have to wait until next year to see the workers in action, provided there are no problems with the tender, such as no one showing up. And once they start, their execution will take 7 months, so it will not be finished until next spring.
Ironically, when the then Minister of the Interior and Transport Florencio Randazzo launched the first tender in 2015 - then the official dollar was quoted at less than 10 pesos and the presidency was in the hands of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner - it was to be executed in 90 days. To replace the traditional central platform - where trains traveling in both directions stopped - a side platform was built next to the main descending track, for the stopping of trains heading towards Once.
The station, which was inaugurated on May 29, 2016, is very far to the east of the station, and access to it requires crossing the busy Gabriel Ardoino Street (Segunda Rivadavia), since there are no sidewalks, to use the steep pedestrian bridge that connects French and Moreno streets, walking 300 meters to the underground pedestrian crossing located in front of Plaza Sarmiento or 200 meters to the level crossing on Monteagudo Street.
Shortly after, the side platform was enabled for the stopping of trains to Moreno, and the central platform was demolished, after which - already during the presidency of Mauricio Macri - the project was paralyzed. It was necessary to wait until 2021, under the presidency of Alberto Fernández, for a new tender to be held, and the workers reappeared. But as if there was a hidden curse, the tasks did not advance at the expected pace, and on December 10, with the assumption as president of Javier Milei, a new interruption came.
Now a new tender is coming up, and it is hoped that “the third time will be the charm”. According to the technical specifications, “it is planned to complete the works on the central platform, for the expansion of train traffic, construction of accesses, services and security for passengers and residents. The intervention will allow the circulation of trains on the central tracks (called local, instead of doing so as currently on general tracks, which forces the trains to make a double track change: in Liniers and in Haedo, with a speed restriction of 30 kilometers per hour), thus linking the Ramos Mejía station with the rest of the stations already intervened on the Sarmiento Line”.
It is stated that "the work also includes completing the restoration of the station building, its exterior façade, roof, semi-roof, and the completion of the ticket office, hall and passenger service centre works. The existing underpass will also be worked on, completing the access staircase to the central platform and the switchboard rooms."
He warns that "it must be taken into consideration that this tender is the completion of a terminated work; the contractor must make an exhaustive survey of the progress of the work and carry out all the necessary work for the final delivery of the work in perfect working order."
On the island platform, the following will be carried out: the replacement of the labyrinth at the entrance to the platform, at the level crossing that connects Avenida de Mayo with Güemes Street; construction of an access sidewalk at that crossing; construction of a new SUBE access module and new access stairs and completion of ramps, as well as the regulatory platform edge and guiding pavements towards sanitary modules and accesses.
Also, completion of public toilets, station chiefs office, cleaning depot, Gendarmerie and money changer offices; and sanitary, rainwater, electrical, audio, data, CCTV (Closed Circuit Television), intrusion alarm, fire protection system, equipment and signage installations.
In the existing pedestrian tunnel (which connects Plaza Domingo Faustino Sarmiento with Bolívar Street) the staircase to the central platform will be completed and the switchboard and pump room will be refurbished. As for the station building, the renovation of its façade, roofs, carpentry, semi-covered areas will be completed, and work will be done on the ticket office, the passenger service center and the hall. And the perimeter fence of the station will be formed next to Leandro N. Alem Street (Segunda Rivadavia), in its original position on the municipal line. |
