These are not good times for users or for the highway that connects Bogotá with Girardot. Actually, they haven’t been in the last 20 years. A Google search for that route of just under 150 kilometers only yields bad news: delays, landslides, floods, geological faults (under observation), traffic jams, accidents… and various work fronts.
“Bogotá-Girardot is an escape that costs blood, sweat and tears. Despite the fact that it is a dual carriageway that we were promised would be a journey of just two hours to the illusion of those who are going to ‘swim in’ Melgar, the less affluent; the members of the clubs to play golf or enjoy the barbecue in their condominium the middle class who bought a house on the outskirts of Girardot”, says the journalist Carlos Obregón in a letter of his published on the website diariocriterio.com, entitled ‘Bogotá-Girardot, the route of impotence’.
On the previous bank holiday, on April 30, the collapse of the bank in the Boquerón sector, in devil’s nose, It caused phenomenal traffic chaos, which is no longer news on that highway. But, as the old folks say with nostalgia, it also had good times.
Others, like Daniel Fernández, Technical Manager of Vía 40 Express, the concessionaire that is building the ‘Third lane Bogotá-Girardot’ project, assures that the good times will return.
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Third Lane Bogotá-Girardot
Gone was the corrupt performance of the Nule brothers in 2012 that impacted the construction of the dual carriageway at that time. The works for the extension to the third lane were awarded to the Vía 40 Express consortium in 2016. It had an initial cost of 1.7 trillion pesos and its execution began in 2016, its delivery is projected for the end of 2025.
The works include 21 vehicular bridges, 25 pedestrian ones, four viaducts, 67 kilometers of track widened to a third lane, as well as rehabilitating 145 kilometers of track.
If the schedule is met, this means that there are still two long years of traffic jams left.
The three lanes will be from Bogotá to the Chinauta toll; and going uphill, from the Sumapaz tunnel to the Chinauta tollbooth, there are approximately 67 kilometers.
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The walk to Girardot
Precisely the Devil’s Nose, that enormous rock that since ancient times has covered the road in the Bogotá-Girardot direction, next to the Sumapaz river, the Mariano Ospina Pérez bridge over the Magdalena river, which links the latter city with the neighboring Tolima municipality of Flandes , as well as the Sibaté tunnel, the Girardot port and, in general, the landscape, were the greatest attractions for travelers in the last century. youAll this happened long before Melgar, Tolima, was filled with pools and became the ‘beach’ of the rolls; and that Girardot was filled with condominiums, because this, the second city of Cundinamarca, had periods of glory.
In 1873 the first trip was made on the Moltke steamer, which would be the beginning of its important role as a port on the Magdalena River. At the beginning of the last century, more than thirty steamships sailed between Honda and Neiva. The railway also contributed to giving life to Girardot. Construction began in 1881; in 1883 the rails reach Tocaima, and in 1909, Facatativá.
Girardot also had one of the first bridges over the Magdalena River, a suspension bridge built by the brothers Gonzalo and Camilo Carrizosa, inaugurated in 1884. The railway bridge opened on January 1, 1930, shortly before the highway to Bogotá was opened. . And the vehicle, parallel to this, the Ospina Pérez, dates from 1950.
In Girardot’s story, in addition to ships, trains and automobiles, planes also appear. In 1920 the inaugural Scadta flight arrived from Barranquilla. And in 1922 the first presidential flight concluded in Girardot with Pedro Nel Ospina on board, who came from Puerto Berrío; and in Flanders, the neighboring municipality, the main aviation schools in the country functioned, both military and civilian.
(Also read: These are the six works that most impact mobility in Bogotá).
Another of the great attractions of the region in other times was to travel from Bogotá along the old highway to Fusagasugá, passing through the San Miguel hill, along the road that leads from Sibaté to the Aguabonita and La Aguadita villages.
The Sibaté tunnel has been on this route since the 1930s. It was built in 1929 in carved rock to allow the passage of the Southern Railway, which ended its route at the San Miguel Station. Later it was produced for vehicle traffic and became a great tourist attraction.
Devil’s Nose – Cundinamarca, Colombia
the iconic nose
But without a doubt, and going back to the passage through the Devil’s Nose, this was and still is for some one of the greatest attractions of the trip due to the appearance of the rock, that took that particular form after several dynamite explosions to make way for the highway, back in 1942.
The history that goes back to the first half of the 20th century is full of myths, legends and even horror stories. The most popular tells that the workers were surprised when they tried to blow up the rock, since it did not give way, it remained intact. Only on the third attempt did they manage to open the hole to make way for the road. These difficulties were attributed to the lord of the horns, the tail and the trident who, they say, refused to let them pass.
This is the story told by Don Anselmo Vargas, an old man in his late 90s who has spent much of his life in El Boquerón selling palm wine. Others say that under the rock, near the bed of the Sumapaz river, there is a deep hole that they call the cave of the devil.
The presence of the devil in that area was attributed in other times the causes of the accidents that frequently occurred, especially when the road was two-way.
In March 2010, when the Guillermo León Valencia tunnel, better known as the Sumapaz tunnel, was inaugurated, travelers going to Bogotá from the southwest of the country failed to see the attraction of the Devil’s Nose. Now they marvel at the 4,189-meter tunnel built in the deepest part of the Central Cordillera, on the border of the departments of Tolima and Cundinamarca.
(Of your interest: Be careful, drivers: change directions in Dosquebradas to improve mobility).
Today, the Devil’s Nose is an obligatory step for travelers going from Bogotá to the southwest of the country, and it will be there for many more years. “He is untouchable”, affirms Fernández, the Technical Manager of Vía 40 Express.
This is how mobility will work during the festive bridge
The passage through the Devil’s Nose will be enabled to one lane. The Police will enable a reversible from Fusagasugá to Bogotá, during the return plan on May 22, from 10 in the morning to 10 at night.
In sectors of work, which are allowed for the safety of users, two lanes will be enabled in the direction of the greatest vehicular flow and in other points counterflows or crossings to one lane will work.Those traveling in the Bogotá-Girardot direction may use the alternative routes Sibaté-San Miguel-Fusagasugá or Mesitas del Colegio-Viotá-Girardot.
‘Geologically the project is complicated’
5 questions to José Daniel Fernández, Vía 40 Express Technical Manager
José Daniel Fernández (JDF), technical manager of the concession via 40 Express.
How long will people have to put up with traffic jams on the highway?
The project is divided into eight functional units. The last unit is scheduled for the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026. From that date on, the only thing that users will see are the routine operation and maintenance tasks. At some point, to maintain the standards, more in-depth work will have to be done. but they are going to be specific things, nothing of the magnitude of what is being done now.
(You can read: This is how works are progressing on Av. Cali; it will have a connection with the first line of the Bogotá metro).
At what percentage of progress is the work?
It is around 30 percent. If you read this figure, you think that everything is at 30 percent, no. We already have 50 kilometers of the project completely finished and by the end of this year possibly some 70 kilometers of the total 140 of the project will be completely open to traffic. Right now users are going to see a combination of major works in progress and third rail already built.
Is it difficult to overcome the problems of geological faults?
Hard to beat is. I am going to make this comment to you as a person not born in Colombia (Santander, Spain) and with experience in other countries. From a geological point of view, I had never experienced a project as complicated as this one. In all construction projects we are going to have these problems, but building in Colombia is something suitable for few companies. Geologically, the project is complicated, there are unstable areas and it is being designed and built to solve all these challenges.
Will the zones of ‘faults under study’ end?
It is very common here in Colombia to mark these areas as geological fault zones under study and it stayed there. We cannot do so because we have a series of indicators that will be met throughout the duration of the concession. I have standards to meet throughout the duration of the concession, just after the concession, ten years after construction is finished and 25 years later, and for this we have planned investments in major maintenance to maintain the standards.
I go back to Nariz del Diablo, is the rock stable?
Nose? Yeah. The rest not so much, but the nose is stable. We are talking about an area with movement, an area with rain, but the nose cannot be touched. Even the enlargement designs of that entire area contemplated that the nose cannot be affected. The whole area is quite stable, geologically complicated, but we are working to make it much more stable.
Read the full interview at www.motor.com.co
