New Central Highway? ... Better, new Central Railroad

As Gestion reports, the government is apparently leaning towards the construction of a new Central Highway, with new layout and design, based on elevated roads and tunnels, as is done modernly throughout the world. The Central Highway links the capital of Peru, Lima, with the departments of the central “sierra” and jungle: Junín, Cerro de Pasco, Huánuco, Ucayali, Huancavelica.

But better alternatives are on the Executive table, as this blog reported at the time (post: 01, 02, 03); for example, the proposals of the Junín Region, collected by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, MTC, for a new modern route for the Central Railroad, based on 3 trans-Andean tunnels, of a total of 43 km. A reference is the 57-kilometer St. Gotthard Tunnel, which crosses the Alps between Switzerland and Italy

The second alternative is superior from the point of view of connectivity, technology, and energy, and even more in the context of China's unstoppable "Belt and Road” initiative; the projected Brazil-Peru bioceanic railway corridor and the necessary national electric rail network. For a country with increasing oil imports and an untapped hydroelectric generation potential, the advantage of the rail project is remarkable.

According to Gestión (3.12.19), studies of the trans-Andean rail tunnel are carried out by an Italian-Korean consortium, and it is expected that in 2020 it will be tendered as a co-financed state initiative. The project consists of 3 tunnels, 25, 13 and 5 k.m., and other works, with a cost of US $ 1,704 million.

In the first year alone, the now almost inoperative Central Railroad should receive 2.15 million tons of additional cargo, also improving the today catastrophic passenger transport.

9.12.19