Paseo del Bajo and its impact on the life of Buenos Aires

Ever since the 18th century, the banks of Río de la Plata witnessed growing business and cultural activity, much of which was concentrated in Buenos Aires, as the capital of the Viceroyalty, where a large percentage of exports from South American colonies was shipped to Spain. Later, between 1880 and 1930, about 3 million immigrants reached Argentina through the city’s docks, making Buenos Aires a cosmopolitan town and one of the most important cities worldwide.

As a result, the city changed its appearance and dynamics, as it experienced extraordinary growth coupled with intense—and in some cases disorganized—urbanization processes. The led, for example, to areas for leisure and housing overlapping long-distance public transport stations, or cargo and private transport sharing the same avenues and streets. In fact, in some major thoroughfares of the city, heavy traffic accounted at some point for up to 40% of vehicular traffic.  

The impact of these mismatches on some key avenues of the city has been evident: traffic congestion, environmental pollution, inefficiency in transport costs or dysfunctional infrastructure. At the same time, the city was losing opportunities to boost its competitiveness as a result of the flaws in its logistic systems.

The Paseo del Bajo renovation project emerged in light of this outlook, a USD 650-million endeavor, 400 million of which were disbursed by CAF, which provided a structural solution to many of these problems, and gave Buenos Aires the push it needed to maximize the impact of business activity, facilitate urban mobility and boost productivity.

The main purpose of the renovation of Paseo del Bajo is to connect PuertoMadero and the Microcenter, which are physically separated by a few blocks but were actually detached due to the lack—until now—of adequate transport infrastructure. To this end, a 7.1-kilometer road corridor was proposed to connect 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 boasts state-of-the-art services, such as the “freeways without barriers” system, which incorporates electronic non-stop toll-by-plate, thus helping reduce pollution and save fuel.

The benefits of the new road corridor will not only be logistical. They will also imply 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. In addition, an area of 60,000 sq m in Parque del Bajo will be recovered for public use, providing a new green lung for the city, where Porteños can engage in leisure and recreational activities.

Paseo del Bajo will have a direct impact on the economy of the city. Good connectivity reduces commute time and costs and improves competitiveness of companies, creating a positive direct impact on urban productivity.  

This project is especially relevant for CAF, as it represents the type of comprehensive interventions for development that the institution promotes in urban areas throughout the region through its Cities with a Future program.

As part of its commitment to Argentina’s development, CAF approved approximately USD 4.7 billion for the nation in the last five years (2014-2018), through infrastructure, integration, productivity and social inclusion projects.