They gave date to the reopening of a key bridge for Buenos Aires mobility

At the beginning of November 2024, an official sign announced, after two years, the exact date on which, finally, a main artery would be reopened for the circulation of vehicles in the city of Buenos Aires: The Soler bridge. The structure, which joins the neighborhoods of Palermo, Belgrano and Collegiatebetween Dorrego and Santos Dumont, was closed to traffic since the end of 2022, in the management of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, when the need to carry out maintenance reforms was detected.

In the course of all those months, while the neighbors did not see activities in the place, neither cranes nor operators working on these improvements, the immediate vicinity began to embang, especially the tangles of the bridge, with posters that demanded: «Arrérate it now.»

Now, the spokesmen of the Ministry of Infrastructure confirmed that the deadline that this sign stipulated last year, and that determined Reopening for March 31, 2025: «Start of work. Puente Ciudad de la Paz. Habilitation Exclusive Transit for Livianos (03/2025-ETAPA 1) (sic)». In fact, Gabriel Sánchez Zinny, Chief of Cabinet of Ministers of CABA, resorted to social networks to highlight this next step: “We are recovering the City of Peace bridge to improve mobility in the city. A historical icon that unites Palermo, Collegiate and Belgrano is being restored to be operational again. This work is Key for connectivity of the area and the fluidity of Buenos Aires traffic, ”he said.

This qualification means, according to what sources of Urban Highways (AUSA)who are responsible for the execution of the project, which from that date They can circulate there the small bearing vehicles, such as cars, motorcycles and bicycles. Today bicycles have to be raised by users to cross the bridge along pedestrian side stairs.

The announcement adds, thus, a series of key points in the urban mobility sector –incorporation of new means of transport, reconditioning of the highways of the south of the city, among others -, on which much of the GCBA policy is based, when little is missing for the legislative elections, which will be held on May 18, and that will bring Larreta back to the ring, as he confirmed this week.

The reconditioning began last year, when they painted the walls of the bridge, previously graffiti, in what were the first improvement works in the area and included the roads. Other steps were to fix the drains of the board, rebuild the joints and incorporate new metal reinforcements.

Basically, the work is in its entirety in two stages, and this reopening means the concretion of the first: “(it) seeks to perform rapid rehabilitation by aggregate of new metal reinforcements and proceed to qualifying to public use. That will be exclusively for light vehicles until the end of 2025 ″, they detailed from AUSA.

In addition, in the Buenos Aires portfolio they explained that the second stage will begin in parallel and will be The construction construction of a new metallic bridgeof similar architecture and «with all the demands of current regulations.» The idea is to replace the structure in a definitive way and improve the transitability for all types of vehicles, including cyclists and pedestrians. It is estimated that this part takes eight weeks, while work on the surrounding sectors, such as sidewalks, lighting and stonecutters. The train service, they said, will not be affected.

The delays of more than two years to open the section had a Ciudad vs nation conflict. As the stretch passes over the Miter train tracks, Retiro-León Suárez branch, they had to have the authorization of the National Transport Regulation Commission (CNRT) and the Railway Operating Company (Sofse). The original project was in the hands of public space and urban hygiene, but it was referred to the Buenos Aires Ministry of Infrastructure when they determined that the tasks exceeded their faculties, because the studies had thrown that they had to build a practically new bridge.

At the time, the Ministry of Transportation of the Nation commented, in dialogue with this media, that the initial plan had not been approved “because it had errors, and for that reason it was requested that they made a new presentation”, everything that hit the extended closure of the Soler bridge.