Work on a new Brazil-Bolivia bridge is scheduled for 2024

Another step towards greater South American integration will be taken this year. This involves construction work on the Guajará-Mirim International Bridge, in the municipality of Rondônia.

This year the Brazilian government, through the Ministry of Transport, should begin the project for the binational bridge between Brazil and Bolivia over the Mamoré River, considered one of the highlights of the New PAC.

The planned investment is R$429.5 million to connect the BR-425/RO in Guajará-Mirim to Guayaramerín, in Bolivia, in what should be another bioceanic route and aims to facilitate transport and make national freight cheaper. The notice for the work was released last November.

According to the Ministry, the length of the bridge is 1.22 kilometers, with a width of 17.3 meters and expected to be completed in 36 months. It is estimated that the work will involve more than 4 thousand hires.

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The project aims to provide greater South American integration, in addition to offering access to the Pacific Ocean by passing through Bolivia and reaching the Chilean and Peruvian coast. This logistical infrastructure is of fundamental importance when thinking about exporting Brazilian agro-industrial products, mainly from the Central-West, but without disregarding production from the North and Southeast.

Reaching the other ocean via the stretch can lower costs for many production chains that use Brazilian ports.

According to the Ministry of Transport, other works that the government invests throughout the territory to facilitate bioceanic routes are:

• construction of access to the third international bridge between Brazil and Paraguay;
• recovery and adaptation of 104 kilometers of pavement on BR-267/MS;
• international bridge that connects the cities of São Borja, in Rio Grande do Sul, to Santo Tomé, in Argentina;
• paving of BR-285/RS/SC;
• the international bridge of Brazil-Paraguay Integration, which connects Foz do Iguaçu (PR) to Presidente Franco, a Paraguayan city neighboring Ciudad del Este;
• the second bridge over the Jaguarão River, on BR-116/RS.

Historical demand

In 1903, when signing the Treaty of Petrópolis, it was established that Bolivia would have the right to be connected to the sea (Atlantic Ocean) through Brazilian territory.

The treaty was what established, 120 years ago, that the territory that is today the state of Acre was incorporated into Brazil, while Bolivia was left with a small strip of land, which today would be in Mato Grosso, in addition to a payment and other compensations, such as access to the territory.

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At the launch ceremony of the notice, the Minister of Public Works, Services and Housing of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Edgar Montaño Rojas, said: “Since the Treaty of Petrópolis, we have dreamed of greater integration with Brazil, like the one this bridge will bring to us. provide. We are very grateful to finally be able to move this project forward.”

*With information from the Ministry of Transport