Peru set to upgrade Callao port roads

Peru's central government will finance road upgrades in Lima's port of Callao in a bid to ease the capital's time-consuming traffic congestion.

Work got underway on the 14mn-sol (US$4mn) Santa Rosa avenue, a 4.45km road that will link to the 14km Lima coastal drive known as the costanera, the transport and communications ministry said.

The project, which includes a bridge over the Rímac river, is scheduled to be completed by the second quarter of 2019, the ministry said in a statement. It added that the project will ease traffic on Elmer Faucett, the main avenue linking Lima and Callao.

The government, which has promoted upgrades of Callao's port and airport and is pushing ahead with line 2 of the Lima metro, which will link Callao with Lima's Ate district, seeks to link the Santa Rosa road with a new entrance to Jorge Chávez Airport, according to the ministry.

The road is part of a program to upgrade roads in Lima and Callao ahead of the 2019 Pan American Games, which will be held in the capital next July.

"We must look at every way to ease traffic in the capital by building alternative routes," President Martín Vizcarra said in broadcast comments. "With the expansion of Jorge Chávez Airport, we're going to receive more passengers, so we need an alternative road, which will be complemented by line 2 of the Lima metro."

Lima's traffic jams, which force many of the city's 10mn residents to spend 4-5 hours in daily transport, are widely held to match that of Sao Paulo, as 1mn cars were added to the capital's streets over the past decade with few transport infrastructure projects to channel the additional traffic.

President Vizcarra, who replaced Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in March, has transferred over 10bn soles to regional and local governments this year to finance infrastructure projects.

CALLAO

The central government has stepped in as the port city's political situation has grown increasingly complex in recent years.

Outgoing Callao regional president Félix Moreno (2014-2018) was detained during an investigation into his alleged ties to disgraced Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, while his successor Dante Mandriotti, who won regional elections held in October, is also under investigation for allegedly forming part of an extortion ring. Both deny any wrongdoing.