Connecting Acre, Brazil, a state in the Amazon, with the cities of Matarani, Ilo and San Juan de Marcona, which lie along the southern coast of Peru, is the Transoceanic Highway. The highway is 3,400 miles long and basically involves the renovation of existing roads as well as the construction of new ones. The main objective of the highway is to facilitate the transport of Brazilian goods to the Pacific coast and, therefore, to the Asian market, as well as to facilitate the transfer of Asian products to the Atlantic coast and, consequently, to the markets of the United States. , Europe and Brazil. It is expected to attract more tourists to the area. On the other hand, it has been a concern of environmentalists that the highway will cause an increase in the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
A vast construction project
When the project started, there was a more complex road network in Brazil, so construction efforts focused on building a bridge over the Acre River and making the border crossing more efficient. In Peru, it was necessary to pave the highway between the Brazilian border and the Inambari River and renovate and improve three already paved roads that crossed the Andes and connected with the cities of San Juan de Marcona, Matarani and Ilo. Additionally, the work required the construction and renovation of 1,606 miles of highways, as well as 11 miles of city highways. In total, 22 bridges were to be built, in particular the Presidente Guillermo Billinghurst Bridge. This bridge was designed to cross the Madre de Dios River, a few kilometers from the main city of the Madre de Dios department, Puerto Maldonado. The bridge, which cost US $ 22 million, is 450 miles long and features a large hanging structure. The construction cost of the Trans-Oceanic Highway was more than $ 1.51 billion. The financing sources were the Andean Development Corporation and the National Development Bank of Brazil. These bank loans allowed the financing of a Public-Private Alliance between the companies contracted to carry out the work and the Peruvian government.
Environmental concerns
Although the commercial gains from the construction of the highway were supported by the governments of Peru, Bolivia and Brazil, environmentalists were concerned that the highway would be approved without an environmental impact study and would negatively affect the region from an environmental point of view. . They reported that climate changes would occur as new roads divided the natural expanse of the Amazon rainforest and made it warmer and drier. The atmosphere would fill with more carbon gases from the forest causing temperatures to rise.
The fears are confirmed
An environmental impact study carried out during the construction of the road concluded that within ten years the road will degrade natural forests as well as urban areas, cause problems for water resources and biodiversity, and have a great impact on local societies by invading native land in general.
In a land of contradictions and extremes, the Transoceanic Highway is another Peruvian example of conflicts of interest in a complex situation.