Bogota and, above all, the 2.5 million inhabitants of the northwest of the city received good news this Thursday. The National Government and the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá signed the co-financing agreement for the Subway Line 2 who will go to Suba and Engativa. Likewise, they made a financial commitment for the expansion and construction of TransMilenio along 13th Street.
(You may be interested in: Bogotá Metro: this Thursday the money for Line 2 is guaranteed)
(To continue reading: The extension of the TransMilenio trunk line in Soacha was unwrapped)
“Bogotá should know that today, two days before celebrating our city’s 484th birthday, it receives from the youngest Bogota president in history the largest investment in infrastructure and sustainable mobility in history,” the mayor celebrated. claudia lopez this Thursday in the middle of the event, which took place in the Free Zone of Fontibón.
On the one hand, Line 2 will cost 34.9 billion pesos, of which the Nation will put 24.45 billion (70%) and Bogotá, 10.47 billion (30%). On the side of Calle 13, this will cost 4.97 billion pesos, of which the Nation will put 3.48 billion (70%) and Bogotá, 1.49 billion (30%).
Added to these two projects are another three that are co-financed by Bogotá and the Nation, which the mayor described yesterday as the ‘five birthday gifts’ for the capital: the expansion of the North highway and the 7th race (the nation puts 4.8 billion), the South ALO (the Nation puts 1.5 billion) and the trunk lines of TransMilenio 68 and Cali (the nation puts 4.6 billion).
Adding these five project packages, we have that the Nation invests around 39 billion pesos and Bogotá, about 12.
“Today we are seeing the demonstration of what can be done when working with a higher purpose, when there is no room for divisions, much less for fractures,” the President stressed in his speech.
(Also: A glass bridge at Salto del Tequendama, how viable is it?)
What comes with the Metro
Line 2 will be 15.5 kilometers long –of which 14.4 km will be underground–, 11 stations and 1 workshop yard in the Fontanar sector. The commercial speed will be 40 km/h –in Bogotá, during peak hours, the average speed will be 20 km/h– and will operate with 25 trainswhere, in each one, 1,800 passengers will fit.
“Thanks to this second line, those two and a half million Bogotanos (who live in Suba and Engativá) will no longer take an hour and a half each way to get to the center, but a maximum of 40 minutes, in clean, electric, sustainable transport. ”, highlighted the mayor.
At the moment, This line has feasibility studies. As Darío Hidalgo, an expert in mobility, explains, these studies “are prior to design studies. They have various elements of advancement of the geotechnical, physical, rolling stock, works, workshop yard, tunnel components (…) and they have a cost-benefit component”.
Line 2, moreover, already has the technical endorsement of the Ministry of Transport, has the character of strategic importance through the recently issued Conpes 4104 and, now, has a co-financing agreement. The president affirmed that yesterday’s signature “is not a cardboard check, it is a check with funds, with future validity, with certain commitments that allow us to open the contracting processes in 2023.”
Bogota Metro Wagon
But, to get to the hiring, other steps will be necessary. Hidalgo indicates that now the technical, legal and financial structuring will come, define whether it will be a concession contract (such as Line 1, which includes detailed designs, works, iron material and operation) or public works and decide whether or not to seek multilateral banking. For Hidalgo, some of these steps could make it necessary to go to the Bogotá Council or the Interparliamentary Public Credit Commission.
“Having the bidding open in April of next year is demanding, but it is possible,” says Hidalgo.
According to the schedule, in the second half of 2023 the work will be awarded, in 2024 the preliminary works will begin (networks, premises, etc.) and in 2032 the line will be ready.
(We recommend: Julián Esteban: what has happened a year after the cyclist’s death?)
The challenges
Hidalgo highlights that the cost of the work already gives clues to the complexity of the work. It must be taken into account that there will be 14.4 kilometers underground and, even, in one section, it will be necessary to pass under the Tibabuyes wetland. To be able to make an underground metro, says the expert, you can go to a tunnel boring machine. He recognizes, however, that “the soils of Bogotá are quite soft, the closer we get to the Bogotá River and the wetland, the soil conditions will be highly saturated with water and that will imply certain conditions for the adaptation of the tunnel so that it does not have differential settlements. and channel the leaks. But the technical challenge is not unrelated to the knowledge that we already have in Bogotá of soft soils”.
On the other hand, Ómar Oróstegui, director of Futuros Urbanos, draws attention to several challenges that lie ahead. The first, he warns, is the position of the incoming National Government of Gustavo Petro: “The next government or the incoming Minister of Finance needs to confirm if they have budgetary availability to finance the line,” Oróstegui affirms and questions the silence of the next leaders. Indeed, to date, neither the president-elect nor his cabinet have made a specific statement on Line 2. “We depend on the will of the incoming government to ratify the financing,” says Oróstegui.
In addition, he points out that, in this scenario, a statement on the future of Line 1 of the Bogotá metro is also vital. “If in the end it is decided to modify Line 1, the question is where the resources would come from and if that affects Line 2,” reflects the analyst.
For now, the mayor has remained firm in the construction of Line 1 as an elevated metro. “The first line is not a project, it is a work in progress, which goes to almost 20 percent. It is not a promise, it is a work in progress,” the president said yesterday.
(Be sure to read: Regiotram: we tell you the details of the works)
13th street
The intervention in this logistics corridor includes more and better platforms, bike paths and tree planting.
The other key project that achieved co-financing this Thursday was that of 13th Street. This will consist not only of its expansion and adaptation of bicycle paths and public space, but also the construction of a TransMilenio trunk line. This project had been structured since the administration of Enrique Peñalosa.
Thus, Calle 13 will have a total of 10 lanes: four lanes in each direction for mixed traffic and one lane in each direction for TransMilenio. On the trunk line, 11.4 kilometers between Carrera 50 and the Bogotá River, there will be 14 stations and a head station to connect with the inter-municipal transport that goes to Sabana Occidente (Cundinamarca) and with the SITP.
The mayor announced that this same year it will be contracted and that in the first quarter of 2023 the works will begin. According to Conpes 4104, which also gives the Calle 13 project its strategic importance, it is estimated that the works will end at the end of 2026.
President Duque stressed that this work will not only be a mobility solution for Fontibón and Aranda Bridgebut it will give the private sector greater competitiveness by improving the conditions of the main logistics corridor of the capital.
(In other news: Open public invitation process for works in the Bronx Creative District)
President Duque is decorated
During the signing event of the co-financing agreements, the mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, presented President Iván Duque with the distinction Civil Order of Merit City of Bogotá in the degree of Grand Extraordinary Cross “for his commitment in the development of the projects of the capital”. In addition, she gave him a map of Bogotá as thanks for her legacy for “the Bogotá-Cundinamarca Metropolitan Region”, a project also supported by Duque. Likewise, the board of directors of the District Council granted the president the José Acevedo y Gómez Civil Order of Merit in the Gran Cruz degree “for the actions that he has generated for the benefit of the Capital District between 2018 and 2022.”
ANA BRIDGES
On twitter: @soypuentes