Bolivia dual carriageway project stalled

Work remains at a halt on the 70km dual carriageway upgrade connecting Yapacani with Montero in Bolivia’s Santa Cruz department. A disagreement between the Mexican construction company that was building the link, Tradeco, and Bolivia’s road administration department, ABC, resulted in the contract being cancelled. The route, Highway 4, runs from Yapacani through Santa Fe, San Carlo and Portachuelo to Montero and the project was intended to improve the road and boost its capacity by increasing the number of lanes from two to four. The work would also cut crashes on the route and improve the local economy by boosting transport, trade and commerce. The route skirts around the Amboro National Park and its upgrade could help bring tourist trade to the area, further developing the local economy. To the west of Yapacani the road snakes through a series of mountain switchbacks to Cochabamba while to the south of Montero it heads to Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The International Development Bank (IDB) provided a US$122 million loan to help fund the road widening work back in 2012, with the project having been approved in 2013. However ABC grew frustrated with Tradeco’s level of progress on the road project, with the deal then being cancelled. Although ABC did say it would see work restarting on the project during 2016 with a different contractor carrying out the construction, this has not yet been achieved.