Ruta del Sol: users complain about the poor condition of the road - Sectors

The miles walk of Colombians to the destinations on the atlantic coast along the ruta del sol it was for a good number of them, a real Via Crucis. From the images and videos that were seen through social networks, the experience of driving on this road was the closest to traveling on the lunar surface. Today many drivers have nothing to envy to Neil Armstrong and his vehicles to the lunar module.

“It is completely destroyed, a shame, after Doradal there are no more than ten meters in good condition and falling into a hole is the usual thing. What is not normal is the size of the holes, I saw more than 50 stranded vehicles up to Aguachica, Cesar. On the way back I had to take the road to Medellín because a wheel bent in one of those falls. Between La Dorada and Bogotá I counted at least 10 cars affected, including one whose axle broke and crashed into one of the rails. Going that way is a nightmare”, said Giovanni Avendaño, editor of the portal ‘motor.com.co’.

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“For me, traveling by road in Colombia is over. The Ruta del Sol is one of the many embarrassing roads”, said the actor diego trujillo in a tweet that became a trend due to the large number of photos and videos that his followers shared.
On Wednesday, to avoid a dangerous gap, a Brasilia company bus left the road; Last November the same thing happened to a «nanny» who was transporting new cars from the Japanese brand Mazda.

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“The collection of tolls on the Ruta del Sol and any other trail should be suspended until the entire road is in good condition. Otherwise, the crime of fraud is configured,» he said. gustavo gonzalez on his Twitter account (@tavo2366). «Terrible, they do not maintain, many holes and I wonder what they do with the money from the tolls?» Zoraida Martínez said on that same social network.

We transferred this concern to Lyda Esquivel, Technical Vice President of the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI). According to the official, since the contract was canceled in 2017 due to the Odebrecht scandal, the highway has been under the control of the National Highway Institute.

«I understand that Invías did carry out maintenance and the collection (of the tolls) was carried out by them,» the vice president of the ANI told ‘EL TIEMPO’, and explained that «the concession contracts have two sources of income: one it is that of the tolls and another is the future validity, because the money from the tolls is not enough, due to that difference in the contributions”.

«We receive the road as the collection of tolls As of December 1, 2022, we begin with the dealership to attend to the most critical points; however, due to traffic problems and the holiday season we had to suspend work to make way for traffic”, explained Esquivel, who also gave details of the new contracts (see ‘The future of a highway’).

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The truth is that today the road, as confirmed by thousands of testimonies, is in a terrible state and Colombians have the bitter taste that the road that was promised almost 30 years ago as the most importantambitious and modern project to communicate the center of the country with the north coast has only been a source of corruption and administrative disheveledness.

Criticism of the state of the road.

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WEATHER/ VEHICLES/ EQUIPMENT

Leaving from Bogotá to Santa Marta there are 11 tolls: El Rosal, Caiquero, Korán, Zambito, Aguas Negras, La Gómez, Morrison, La Loma, El Copey, Tucurinca and Pailitas. Among all of them, they collected more than 435,000 million pesos in 2021 alone, according to traffic data from ANI and Invías.

“Once the Odebrecht contract was completed, the Government expired and the works were suspended and the works remained as they were. Invías built some sections and I understand that he did some maintenance, ”said Esquivel when insisting on why the Ruta del Sol reached that state of deterioration.

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«The Ruta del Sol is simply the biggest scam that has ever existed in Colombia, it is totally destroyed, full of holes, expensive tolls, total abandonment,» he says. Jorge Aristizabal on Twitter.

For now, and hopefully the same will not happen as with Comsa and Odebrecht, the future of a large part of the Ruta del Sol is in the hands of KMA Constructores SAS and Ortiz Construcciones y Proyectos SA, which will be in charge of finishing the work. “We are committed to complying with and honoring what the contracts say”, pointed out the vice president of the ANI.