Under-secretary: Hwy. 60 doubling to begin mid-year

Works to double capacity on 90.5km of Chilean highway Ruta 60 will begin mid-year, El Mercurio de Valparaiso quoted public works under-secretary Clemente Perez as saying. Ruta 60 connects Region V port city Valparaiso and the Los Libertadores border crossing with Argentina. Perez said that technical differences with concessionaire Autopista Los Andes (Spanish group OHL), which picked up a 20-year concession in 2002 to operate the stretch, have kept works from starting. The works will cost an estimated US$241mn. The 90.5km will be split into two sections, the first of which will run 52km from Los Andes, some 70km north of Santiago and the last major stop before crossing over the Andes mountains to Argentina, to the Pan-American highway (Ruta 5). The second section will run 38.5km from Ruta 5 to Penablanca. Ruta 60 is considered one of the region's most important bi-oceanic corridors. According to the latest ministry information, 90,000 vehicles traveled from the Mercosur trading bloc to Chile along this corridor in 1999, moving some 2.5Mt of cargo.