Alfredo Cornejo inaugurated Section II of the New Pan-American Highway

The event was attended by the Minister of Government, Infrastructure, and Territorial Development, Natalio Mema; the Undersecretary of Territorial Planning, Marité Badui; the head of the Mendoza Highway Authority, Engineer Osvaldo Romagnoli; national legislator Rodolfo Suárez; Minister Víctor Fayad; and the IDB Group representative in Argentina, Viviana Alva Hart, along with mayors, provincial legislators, and municipal authorities from the region.

The new corridor features five interchanges (La Tijera, Besares, the entrance to Colegio San Jorge, Pueyrredón, and Guardia Vieja), collector streets, a 2.5-meter-wide two-way bike lane, safe sidewalks and pedestrian paths, as well as public transportation stops, LED lighting in the central median strip and collector streets, and comprehensive signage.

The project aims to raise road safety and mobility standards for the more than 25,000 vehicles that travel the route daily during peak tourist season. This number increases by up to 40% during peak tourist months.

In this way, the province is restoring an old tourist circuit that connects the Metropolitan Area with Cacheuta and Potrerillos , two of the most visited destinations in the Mendoza foothills. The corridor is thus consolidated not only as a safe and efficient access route, but also as a tourist and productive hub, promoting the urban, economic, and social development of the area and its surroundings.

The governor emphasized that " Mendoza hasn't seen a road project of this magnitude in decades . This route will mark the city's future growth toward the foothills and will preserve the most productive lands in the plains."

He added that "this infrastructure will boost the development of tourism, the mountains, and one of the most beautiful places in the province, and will better connect with Chile and the Potrerillos Perilago." He also emphasized that "we know that every major project generates inconvenience, but this effort was worth it: we worked triple shifts and with well-managed financing, because without planning and financial leverage, projects of this magnitude cannot be completed."

In this context, Cornejo emphasized that "if the city's development in this area had been planned years ago, productive lands in the plains would have been preserved. Today, we must carefully plan for the future so that this growth is organized and sustainable ."

Furthermore, the president emphasized that Mendoza is making progress on provincial routes with its own resources and will also take charge of several sections of national routes, such as Route 40 North and the road to San Juan, at least as far as Lavalle.

He explained that the Province has no direct responsibility for these national corridors , but that they are vital to its development, and that the national government is expected to finalize the tender to modernize National Route 7, from the Desaguadero Arch to the border with Chile. Cornejo noted that, in the current economic climate, it is almost a "miracle" to sustain this level of work, possible only thanks to an orderly administration.

For his part, the Minister of Government, Infrastructure, and Territorial Development, Natalio Mema, emphasized that the Pan-American Highway is an example of how well-used financing can transform the province . He noted that the project was planned and tendered during Cornejo's first administration and had to endure a pandemic, an economic crisis, and a change in national administration, but it was still completed.

And he stated: " It's a project that seemed impossible, and today it's finished . This financing, which we will repay together, will also be enjoyed by all of us in Mendoza. We must stop demonizing debt: what matters is where that debt goes, and in this case, it's infrastructure that improves people's lives."

The modernization project of the New Pan-American Route (RP No. 82) comprises three stages:

• Section I , already opened in 2020, connects the Western Corridor with the La Tijera Interchange.
• Section II , inaugurated today, extends the dual carriageway to the Gobernador Ortiz Roundabout.
• Section III , currently under construction, will bring improvements to Cacheuta.

The investment, financed by the Mendoza government with support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is one of the most significant road infrastructure projects in recent years in the province. The Mendoza state is contributing US$30 million, while the international institution is lending US$50 million for sections II and III .

The execution and completion of Section II of the New Pan-American Highway presented various challenges and extraordinary situations in recent years. After the call for bids for its construction was issued in December 2019, the sudden onset of the coronavirus pandemic delayed the start of work by 18 months .

This project began in mid-2021 with strict operational restrictions, and took another nine months, for a total of 27 months, until the contracting firm was authorized to operate at 100 percent capacity and without limitations due to the health emergency. This work was compounded by the relocation of 37 families living along the project area , who were relocated to a neighborhood built in Luján by the Provincial Housing Institute.

The project also required the relocation and renovation of all public service networks —electricity, water, gas, and fiber optics—involving a large number of stakeholders, both state and private. Thus, a new one-kilometer gas pipeline had to be built, and to illuminate the entire stretch, including both the central line and the collector lines, 15 new transformers had to be installed to provide the necessary power.

Furthermore, the New Pan-American Highway, Section II, required necessary and crucial alluvial works to drain water from the foothills , especially during heavy rainfall. The most important was the concrete waterproofing of nearly 2 kilometers of the Sosa Creek, as well as the intervention and improvement of other channels in the area.

The coexistence of the construction project with the urban traffic of thousands of vehicles per day was another challenge for the project's progress, as a constant flow of traffic coexisted with hundreds of workers, dozens of pieces of equipment, gigantic earthworks, the construction of large structures such as the La Tijera, Besares, San Jorge, and Guardia Vieja bridges, and the Pueyrredón viaduct, in addition to the paving process.

All of these tasks were carried out using detours and without ever completely blocking vehicular traffic.