Túnel de la Línea: ‘the most important infrastructure work done in the country’ – Government – Politics

President Iván Duque, while attending this Friday the inauguration of the Line Tunnel, assured that “It is the most important infrastructure work done in the history of our country.”

He assured “it is a country project” but also a life project of the workers who participated in its construction.

For this reason, at the beginning of the opening ceremony of the La Línea Tunnel, Duque also He stressed that the work is a triumph of all its workers, to make “a dream of more than one hundred years come true.”

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‘I do not want to say anything other than infinite thanks, because this is the triumph of a whole country, the desire of a whole country, and this is a tribute to those who paved this path and always deserve all the recognition of the Colombian people’, the president told them.

At the opening ceremony, President Duque He said that this is a day that marks a momentous milestone in our country.

“This is a long process and it is the triumph of an entire nation, this is not an individual triumph, nor a triumph of a few, it is the triumph of that persevering, intense, hard-working, dreaming and materializing Colombia of desires,” said the chief of State.

The president said that it was necessary to remember all the people who made this dream of making the tunnel possible. And he began by highlighting the 6,000 workers who made the work possible.

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But the recognition was not only for them, but also made a journey through the history of the project and made some special mentions, among others, to former President Álvaro Uribe and his then Minister of Works Andrés Uriel Gallego, as well as former Minister Germán Cardona and former Vice President Germán Vargas Lleras

Duque stressed that this work also shows that infrastructure can be reconciled with environmental protection. “Behind this beautiful work there are more than 700,000 trees planted,” said the head of state.

And the president also cleared any doubts about the name that the tunnel will have. “I am also proud of the name that this tunnel bears, Darío Echandía is called a singular man who was President of the Republic, President of the Senate and, President of the Supreme Court of Justice,” he said.

For Duke, “this is the tunnel of resilience, of mettle, and of Colombia’s desire to get ahead “.

At the opening ceremony, the president attends accompanied by his wife, María Juliana Ruiz, Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez, the Minister of Transportation, Ángela María Orozco, and the Director of the National Institute of Highways (Invias), Juan Esteban Gil.

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ABC of the work

What is the La Línea Tunnel?

• It is a one-way tunnel 8.65 kilometers long, built at 2,400 meters above sea level, which prevents vehicles from ascending to Alto de La Línea, located 3,300 meters above sea level.

Where it is located?
• The La Línea Tunnel is located in the middle of the Central Mountain Range, between the municipalities of Calarcá (Quindío) and Cajamarca (Tolima), in the road corridor that connects Buenaventura with Bogotá.

In what sense will the La Línea Tunnel operate?
• The tunnel will operate unidirectionally in the Buenaventura-Bogotá direction.

How many lanes does the La Línea Tunnel have?
• It has 3 lanes: 2 for normal operation and one for handling contingencies and emergencies.

What is the total width of the La Línea tunnel and how deep into the mountain was it built?
• The total width of the La Línea Tunnel is 12.5 meters and its construction reached a depth of 900 meters in the mountain, under the highest point of the Central Cordillera, in the Alto de La Línea.

Is the La Línea Tunnel just a tunnel?
• The La Línea Tunnel is one of the 25 tunnels of the ‘Cruce de la Cordillera Central’ project, which include the pilot or rescue tunnel, 8.5 kilometers long. In total, the project is made up of 60 infrastructure works, among which there are 31 viaducts, 3 interchanges (Versailles, Américas and Vermellón) and the open-pit road in a section with a total length of 30 kilometers in second carriageway.

How many jobs has the construction of the La Línea Tunnel generated?
• More than 6,000 jobs were generated during the construction phase of the project. Most of them were for personnel from the departments of Quindío and Tolima, involving more than 800 engineering professionals.

What security system does the project have?
• The project has the highest technology equipment available that guarantees ventilation, lighting, control, fire extinguishing and electrical supply of all tunnels, bridges and open-air works that are part of the project. In total, there are more than 5,000 components that are part of the electromechanical equipment with which these works are equipped.

How much are the investments of the Cruce de la Cordillera Central project?
• The total cost of the works is $ 2.9 billion.

How much are the investments of the La Línea Tunnel?
• Of the $ 2.9 billion that the investment in the Central Cordillera Crossing adds up, $ 1 billion corresponds to the total costs of the La Línea Tunnel.

What benefits do the works that will be given to the service on September 4 bring with them?
• Increase in the vehicle operating speed of the highway from 18 km / h to 60 km / h.

• Savings in travel times: approximately 50 minutes under normal conditions.

• Savings of 850 hours per year in road closure times.

• 100% decrease in accident rates in the sector.

• Saving the route through the Alto de La Línea of ​​21 km in the Armenia-Ibagué direction.

• Decrease of approximately 270,000 million pesos in operating costs and transportation logistics.

• Two lanes per direction in the 13.4-kilometer mobility.

POLITICS