Argentina’s Sustainable Development Partners
Less than two years after its inception, the Paseo del Bajo project was inaugurated, financed by CAF—development bank of Latin America—, becoming one of the most important projects for Argentina’s capital city in the last 50 years.
The inauguration was attended by CAF executive president Luis Carranza Ugarte and representative in Argentina, Santiago Rojas. The event also featured Argentinian President Mauricio Macri, the head of the Government of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, and the governor of the Province of Buenos Aires, Maria Eugenia Vidal.
Following the inauguration, CAF executive president held a meeting with Argentina’s Minister of Finance, Nicolás Dujovne, in which they reaffirmed the intention of both parties to continue to cooperate and honor their commitments, to continue to promote projects with positive impacts for Argentinians.
In this regard, the renovation of the Paseo del Bajo complex is a project that provides a structural solution to many problems arising from the very formation of Buenos Aires as a capital city. Therefore, CAF actively participated financing US$400 million for the construction. It also has a special relevance for the institution, as it represents the type of comprehensive interventions for development that we promote through the Cities with a Future program.
This project connects Puerto Madero and the Microcentro through a 7.1-kilometer road corridor, joining the Illia and Buenos Aires-La Plata highways, which will separate light and cargo transport, thus reducing logistic costs associated to inter- and extra-city commerce, gas emissions and noise generation.
Paseo del Bajo has four exclusive lanes for trucks and long distance buses, and 8 lanes for small vehicles, which will reduce travel times for more than 100,000 vehicles per day. It also includes the “highways without barriers” system, which uses no-stop electronic toll collection. Benefits also include an urban transformation by creating cleaner, more efficient and safer environments, as well as extending the mobility of pedestrians and cyclists by incorporating bike paths and bridges. An area of 60,000 m2 was renovated for public use and a new green lung was incorporated into the city.
As part of its commitment to Argentina’s development, CAF approved approximately US$4.7 billion for the nation in the last five years (2014-2018), through infrastructure, integration, productivity and social inclusion projects. These disbursements include US$400 million for the Paseo del Bajo project, whose total cost amounted to US$650 million.
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