Provincial Route 2 (Buenos Aires)

Provincial Route 2
Ruta Provincial 2
Route information
Length:	370 km (230 mi)
Existed:	23 January 1938 (1938-01-23) [1][2][3] – present
Major junctions
North end:	Florencio Varela
	NR A004, PR 1, PR 36, PR 13, PR 215, PR 59, PR 20, PR 57, PR 41, PR 63, PR 62, PR 74, PR 55, NR 226, PR 88
South end:	Mar del Plata
Location
Major cities:	Chascomús, Lezama, Castelli, Dolores, General Guido, Coronel Vidal
Highway system
Highways in Argentina

Autovía 2 Juan Manuel Fangio (also known as Provincial Route 2, formerly National Route 2) is an Argentine dual carriageway, which runs from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata. The road was a National Route until 1990 when it was transferred to the Government of Buenos Aires Province. The Autovía 2 extends from the junction of Provincial Routes 1 and 36 and National Route A004, just on the traffic circle "Juan María Gutiérrez", which is the limit of Berazategui and Florencio Varela districts.^[4]

Autovía 2 has two toll booths, one in Samborombón managed by the company "Autovía del Mar" and another in Maipú managed by "Covisur". More than 30 fuel stations are placed on the route in its entirety. The route has also numerous phone posts to call in case of emergency. Another service is an FM radio station which gives reports about the conditions of the route.^[5]

Almost all the intersections with other roads are level crossings, without bridges to prevent accidents. There are also two railroad level crossings with Ferrocarril General Roca tracks.^[6]

Route

Constitución railway station in 1867.

Autovía 2 passing the city of Las Armas, south direction.

Old "La Postrera" bridge.

Old bridge over Tigre Grande lake.

Iron bridge over Ferrocarril General Roca tracks, in Bosques, near La Plata.

Etcheverry Crossing, where PR 215 passes over Autovía 2, in La Plata Partido.

Bridge over 9 Canal, built in 1912 at the North of Dolores on the "old trace" of Route 2.

The route crossing Castelli.

Old bridge over canal 1.

Old bridge over Samborombón river.

Railway bridge near Dolores.

Traffic on the route in La Costa Partido.

This autovía has a North-South direction. It begins in the Rotonda Gutiérrez, where many important roads converge: Provincial Route 36, National Route A004, which connects to NR 1 (also known as Autopista Buenos Aires-La Plata), the fastest option to access to the city of Buenos Aires. There is a bridge over the traffic circle that joins the NR A004 with Autovía 2.^[7]

Some interesting points are the Chascomús Lake (distant 300m from the Autovía), the Autódromo Roberto José Mouras (a motor racing circuit named in memory of a famous Argentine racer), the industrial park of La Plata and the Chis-Chis Lake, famous for its fishing activities. In the city of Lezama the Autovía becomes an urban street, crossing the center of the city along the railroad station. After passing Lezama the Autovía becomes a road again.^[7]

At the south of Salado River, the route passes near to Estancia Villa La Raquel, a huge land with a castle built by the Guerrero family in Castelli Partido during the 19th century. This property is currently used for tourism ^[8] Autovía 2 also passes near to the city of Dolores, next to Autódromo Ciudad de Dolores. At the south of General Guido, in the km 251, there is a railroad crossing with the Ferrocarril General Roca branch-line to General Madariaga, although the service has been suspended since April, 2011.^[9]

In the city of Maipú, town's streets converge to the route. In Estación Camet, the urban zone of Mar del Plata begins.^[10] The road then passes Astor Piazzolla International Airport and after a traffic circle in km 400, the Autovía becomes a boulevard. Between this point and the end of the road, there is another new railroad crossing.

Major intersections

History

The beginning

The bullock carts ("Carretas" in Spanish) travelled by a road extended from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata at the end of 18th century. When rivers and streams were in flood, carts had to stop to continue moving later. During that period of time, the "pulperías" (gauchos' typical bars in Buenos Aires Province erected next to the roads), were used by travellers to have a drink and rest until the road was passable again. The most used pass to cross the Salad River was "La Postrera", at 5 km from the current Autovía.^[13][14]

At the middle of 19th century, carts took 15 days to go from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata. Railroad (then Ferrocarril del Sud, which had taken over the construction of the line) reached the city of Chascomús for the first time in 1865, then expanding to Dolores in 1874, Maipú in 1880 until it finally reached Mar del Plata in 1886 ^[15][16][17]

The opening of Mar del Plata station ended with the use of charts for the moving of people and merchandise, due to train offered a faster trip which did not depend on climatic conditions to be realized.

Dirt road

The dirt road from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata was built by Touring Club Argentino around 1910. This path was different from today, so the road crossed the cities of Avellaneda, Quilmes and Florencio Varela through General Belgrano Road, which was cobbled between 1912 and 1916.^[18]

Using this road (which conditions used to got worse when it rained), the vehicles took almost 2 days to reach Mar del Plata from Buenos Aires.^[2]

The longest bridges on the road were those that crossed Samborombón and Salado rivers. The bridge over Samborombón was an unstable structure built by Automóvil Club Argentino and the second one was famous bridge "La Postrera", made of iron in 1817 by Engineer Luis Augusto Huergo. This bridge was 170m long.^[19][20]

In 2005 the bridge over Salado River was quit and replaced by another made of concrete, which was 275m long.

Paved road

The Second Road Congress of Argentina asked President Hipólito Yrigoyen for the construction of a paved road, with the purpose of make transport of mercancies easier, according to Buenos Aires Province economy had always been based on agriculture and stockbreeding. The other important reason to pave the route was to promote tourism, considering that this was Mar del Plata and other cities' main economic activity by then.^[3]

Engineers concluded that the road should be built near the Atlantic Ocean coast. The alternative project included a road 20% larger than the original one, apart from this road would not crossed any city. On the other hand, the existing road had seven fuel stations, part of Automóvil Club Argentino services network. This project was finally approved in a meeting celebrated at the city of Dolores on July 2, 1933.^[3]

In May 1934 the National and Provincial (Buenos Aires) Governments signed an agreement which divided the construction of a paved road into two stages, using the path indicated by Dirección Nacional de Vialidad. The construction began on December 13, 1934, being finished the first part (from Buenos Aires to Dolores) on January 23, 1938.^[2][3][1] On October 5, the works finished when the road reached Mar del Plata.^[1]

The stretch from Dolores to Mar del Plata, which included an access to Parque Camet (current Constitución Avenue) and another access to the port, was divided into six sections. All of them were given to different companies which took over the construction of their respective stretches. Finally, on October 5, 1938, the entire paved road was opened, after three years of work between Dolores and Mar del Plata.

The stretch from Buenos Aires to Chascomús was modified in order to the road passes by lands nearer to the city of La Plata. The new road only had three railroad crossings with Ferrocarril General Roca tracks: one at the South of Chascomús (km 128), the other at the South of Dolores (km 208,5) and the last inside the urban zone of Mar del Plata (km 403,5). Besides, an iron bridge was built in the Bosques district and an embankment was conceived in order to the railroad tracks passed over the route in Sarandí. This project was repeatedly delayed until it was finally opened by President Juan Domingo Perón in 1953.^[21] There was also a level crossing in Berazategui Partido, three else in La Plata Partido, another in General Guido and the last in Vivoratá.^[22] All those crossing would be later deactivated as branch-lines were closed in the 1960s and 1970s. The line between General Guido and Pinamar was reactivated in December 1996,^[23] although it was suspended in April, 2011, and has not been re-established since.^[9]

The paved road increased the number of tourists that arrived to Mar del Plata and other cities using their cars. By 1940 car vehicles carried more passengers than trains, when five years before only 18% of tourists arrived by cars.^[24]

On 5 October 1941 Route 2 became a National road,^[25] from which Route 2 started in Nicolás Avellaneda Bridge over the Riachuelo River (opened a year before), following its path through Sargento Ponce and Debenedetti Avenues in Wilde, Buenos Aires, and then connecting with Presidente Mitre Avenue to the South East direction.^[22][26]

Reconstruction

By the 1950s the route was in bad conditions due to two main reasons: according to the law which regulated the traffic of vehicles in Argentina, the speed limit was 80 km/h for cars and 50 km/h for trucks; 20 years later, trucks passed at 80 km/h and the road was not prepared for this increase of speed because materials used for its construction were not resistant enough. Another cause that contributed to deterioration of route 2 was that the number of vehicles using the road had tripled within 20 years.

For those reasons, the government invited tenders for the restoration of the road, which took two years of work, from 1956 to 1959. The route was widened to 7.3 metres (24 ft).^[27] In 1968 verges were also paved to improve the security on the road.^[28]

In 1978 verges were widened to their current size, 2.50 metres (8 ft 2 in). By that time, three bridges were built in the most dangerous crossings of the route: a bridge over Ferrocarril General Roca tracks to Mar del Plata, a bridge over the intersection with National Route 1 (mostly known as "Cruce Varela") at the beginning of the 1970s. The last bridge was erected in the intersection with PR 215, known as "Cruce Etcheverry", opened in December 1979.^[29]

As traffic was increasing through the years, Route 2 capacity was overloaded, with plenty of vehicles and accidents. For that reason, the national and provincial governments together planned to build a highway between Buenos Aires and La Plata, which included an access to Route 2 in Rotonda Gutiérrez.^[30]

Transfer to Provincial domain

Provincial Route 2 sign.

Through Decree #1595 (1979), the National Government transferred the stretch between Acceso Sudeste and the intersection with PR 36 to Buenos Aires Province.^[31]

The construction of Buenos Aires-La Plata highway was delayed until in November 1995 it was finally opened.^[32]

Concession

In 1990 the National Government concessed the most passed routes of Argentina to different companies, which would take over the maintenance of the roads. In return, concessionaries charged toll rates, whose amount would be specified on the contract.

Therefore, on November 1990, Concesionaria Vial del Sur (briefed to "Covisur") took over Route 2 for a period of 12 years.^[33] Toll booths were erected in Samborombón (km 90) and Maipú (km 273)

From route to dual carriageway

The route had only one lane by direction, which caused many accidents per year, most of them during Summertime in Argentina. Only in 1992 there were 44 crashes.^[34]

On December 1992 the Public Service Ministry of Buenos Aires Province and Covisur signed an agreement with the purpose to built a dual carriageway, establishing a period of work of 3 years for the path Buenos Aires-Dolores and 3 years else from Dolores to Mar del Plata. The agreement stated that Buenos Aires Province would cost the construction and extended the term of concession until June 2012. The works began on January 1993, with a cost of $ 250 million.^[34]

On March 5, 1999, the works were finished. The new highway was named Juan Manuel Fangio, promulgated by Law 12.994.

Traffic

According to Argentine Law 24.449 being in force at Buenos Aires Province since 2008,^[35] the maximum speed limit for cars and motorcycles in Autovía 2 is 120 km/h, with the exception of urban zones where the limit reduces to 60 km/h. For buses, the speed limit has been established in 90 km/h and trucks must go at 80 km/h.

The contract of concession specifies that current dual carriageway could became into a highway, as well as a reconstruction of the curves to raise the speed limit to 120 km/h in those sectors.^[36]

References

External links

• Covisur, concessionary of Autovía 2
• Autovía del Mar, concessionary of Autovía 2
• Dirección de Vialidad de Buenos Aires